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Marking two years after the deadly assault of the events of October 7th, an event that deeply affected Jewish communities worldwide more than any event following the creation of Israel as a nation.

Among Jewish people it was deeply traumatic. For Israel as a nation, the situation represented deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist project rested on the assumption which held that Israel would prevent similar tragedies repeating.

Military action was inevitable. Yet the chosen course that Israel implemented – the obliteration of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of numerous of civilians – constituted a specific policy. And this choice made more difficult the way numerous US Jewish community members grappled with the attack that triggered it, and it now complicates their commemoration of that date. How does one grieve and remember an atrocity targeting their community during a catastrophe experienced by other individuals connected to their community?

The Complexity of Grieving

The challenge in grieving stems from the reality that little unity prevails as to the significance of these events. In fact, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the disintegration of a half-century-old agreement on Zionism itself.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement within US Jewish communities dates back to writings from 1915 authored by an attorney who would later become high court jurist Louis Brandeis named “The Jewish Problem; Addressing the Challenge”. Yet the unity truly solidified after the Six-Day War that year. Before then, American Jewry maintained a fragile but stable cohabitation among different factions which maintained different opinions regarding the need for a Jewish nation – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and opponents.

Previous Developments

This parallel existence endured through the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of Jewish socialism, in the non-Zionist Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist Jewish organization and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the head at JTS, Zionism had greater religious significance than political, and he forbade singing Israel's anthem, the national song, at religious school events during that period. Nor were Zionist ideology the central focus within modern Orthodox Judaism before that war. Jewish identitarian alternatives remained present.

Yet after Israel routed adjacent nations in that war in 1967, occupying territories including the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish perspective on the nation changed dramatically. The military success, coupled with enduring anxieties regarding repeated persecution, produced a growing belief about the nation's vital role within Jewish identity, and generated admiration for its strength. Discourse about the “miraculous” quality of the outcome and the “liberation” of territory assigned the Zionist project a spiritual, almost redemptive, meaning. In those heady years, a significant portion of the remaining ambivalence toward Israel vanished. During the seventies, Writer Norman Podhoretz declared: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Agreement and Restrictions

The unified position left out Haredi Jews – who largely believed a Jewish state should only emerge via conventional understanding of the Messiah – but united Reform, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The common interpretation of the consensus, identified as left-leaning Zionism, was established on the conviction regarding Israel as a progressive and free – though Jewish-centered – state. Many American Jews saw the occupation of local, Syrian and Egyptian lands post-1967 as provisional, believing that an agreement was imminent that would maintain a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and regional acceptance of the nation.

Several cohorts of US Jews grew up with Zionism a core part of their Jewish identity. The state transformed into a central part in Jewish learning. Israel’s Independence Day evolved into a religious observance. Israeli flags decorated many temples. Youth programs integrated with Israeli songs and learning of the language, with Israeli guests instructing American teenagers Israeli culture. Trips to the nation grew and achieved record numbers through Birthright programs by 1999, providing no-cost visits to the nation was offered to young American Jews. Israel permeated virtually all areas of US Jewish life.

Shifting Landscape

Interestingly, throughout these years after 1967, American Jewry grew skilled regarding denominational coexistence. Open-mindedness and communication between Jewish denominations expanded.

Yet concerning support for Israel – there existed diversity found its boundary. You could be a rightwing Zionist or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a Jewish state remained unquestioned, and challenging that position positioned you outside mainstream views – an “Un-Jew”, as a Jewish periodical described it in writing that year.

Yet presently, during of the destruction of Gaza, food shortages, young victims and outrage over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who refuse to recognize their complicity, that consensus has disintegrated. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer