A Collapse of a Pro-Israel Consensus Among American Jewish Community: What Is Taking Shape Now.

It has been the horrific attack of the events of October 7th, an event that deeply affected global Jewish populations unlike anything else since the founding of the Jewish state.

Within Jewish communities it was shocking. For Israel as a nation, it was deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist endeavor was founded on the presumption that the nation would prevent such atrocities occurring in the future.

Military action seemed necessary. But the response that Israel implemented – the widespread destruction of Gaza, the killing and maiming of many thousands non-combatants – constituted a specific policy. And this choice created complexity in the way numerous American Jews processed the attack that set it in motion, and it now complicates their remembrance of the anniversary. In what way can people grieve and remember a horrific event targeting their community while simultaneously a catastrophe being inflicted upon a different population in your name?

The Challenge of Mourning

The difficulty surrounding remembrance exists because of the circumstance where little unity prevails as to the significance of these events. Indeed, within US Jewish circles, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the collapse of a half-century-old unity regarding Zionism.

The early development of Zionist agreement among American Jewry extends as far back as a 1915 essay authored by an attorney and then future supreme court justice Justice Brandeis named “The Jewish Question; Addressing the Challenge”. However, the agreement truly solidified after the Six-Day War during 1967. Earlier, American Jewry housed a vulnerable but enduring cohabitation across various segments that had different opinions concerning the requirement for Israel – Zionists, neutral parties and opponents.

Background Information

Such cohabitation continued throughout the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of socialist Jewish movements, through the non-aligned American Jewish Committee, within the critical religious group and similar institutions. For Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor of the theological institution, the Zionist movement had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he forbade singing Israel's anthem, the national song, during seminary ceremonies during that period. Nor were support for Israel the central focus within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the six-day war. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.

However following Israel overcame adjacent nations during the 1967 conflict that year, occupying territories comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish perspective on the country evolved considerably. The military success, along with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, produced an increasing conviction regarding Israel's critical importance within Jewish identity, and generated admiration regarding its endurance. Rhetoric concerning the “miraculous” nature of the success and the “liberation” of areas assigned the movement a religious, even messianic, meaning. During that enthusiastic period, much of previous uncertainty toward Israel vanished. During the seventies, Commentary magazine editor Norman Podhoretz stated: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Consensus and Its Limits

The Zionist consensus left out Haredi Jews – who typically thought a Jewish state should only emerge via conventional understanding of the Messiah – however joined Reform Judaism, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and the majority of unaffiliated individuals. The common interpretation of the consensus, identified as progressive Zionism, was based on a belief about the nation as a liberal and free – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews saw the control of Palestinian, Syrian and Egypt's territories after 1967 as not permanent, believing that a solution was imminent that would maintain Jewish demographic dominance in Israel proper and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.

Several cohorts of US Jews were thus brought up with support for Israel a fundamental aspect of their Jewish identity. The nation became an important element within religious instruction. Israeli national day evolved into a religious observance. National symbols decorated most synagogues. Youth programs became infused with Israeli songs and the study of contemporary Hebrew, with Israeli guests instructing American youth Israeli culture. Travel to Israel expanded and achieved record numbers with Birthright Israel during that year, providing no-cost visits to the country became available to young American Jews. The state affected almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Shifting Landscape

Interestingly, during this period post-1967, Jewish Americans became adept regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and dialogue across various Jewish groups increased.

Yet concerning support for Israel – that represented pluralism reached its limit. One could identify as a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, but support for Israel as a Jewish homeland was a given, and challenging that narrative categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – outside the community, as one publication labeled it in an essay that year.

However currently, during of the destruction in Gaza, starvation, dead and orphaned children and outrage regarding the refusal by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their complicity, that unity has broken down. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer