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Two years have passed since the horrific attack of October 7, 2023, an event that deeply affected world Jewry unlike anything else since the founding of the state of Israel.

For Jews it was shocking. For the state of Israel, it was deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist project had been established on the presumption that the nation would prevent similar tragedies from ever happening again.

Some form of retaliation seemed necessary. But the response Israel pursued – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of many thousands of civilians – was a choice. And this choice complicated the way numerous Jewish Americans grappled with the attack that triggered it, and presently makes difficult their commemoration of the day. How does one honor and reflect on a horrific event affecting their nation while simultaneously an atrocity being inflicted upon other individuals connected to their community?

The Challenge of Remembrance

The difficulty of mourning stems from the circumstance where there is no consensus regarding the implications of these developments. In fact, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have seen the breakdown of a decades-long unity on Zionism itself.

The beginnings of pro-Israel unity within US Jewish communities can be traced to writings from 1915 authored by an attorney and then future high court jurist Justice Brandeis titled “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement really takes hold after the 1967 conflict in 1967. Earlier, US Jewish communities contained a vulnerable but enduring parallel existence across various segments which maintained diverse perspectives about the requirement for Israel – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Previous Developments

Such cohabitation continued through the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of socialist Jewish movements, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, in the anti-Zionist Jewish organization and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Zionism was more spiritual instead of governmental, and he forbade singing Hatikvah, Hatikvah, during seminary ceremonies during that period. Nor were Zionism and pro-Israelism the central focus within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the six-day war. Different Jewish identity models existed alongside.

However following Israel routed neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict in 1967, taking control of areas comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish perspective on the country underwent significant transformation. Israel’s victory, combined with persistent concerns about another genocide, led to a growing belief about the nation's essential significance within Jewish identity, and generated admiration for its strength. Rhetoric concerning the extraordinary aspect of the success and the freeing of territory assigned the Zionist project a spiritual, almost redemptive, importance. In that triumphant era, considerable previous uncertainty toward Israel vanished. In the early 1970s, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Agreement and Its Boundaries

The pro-Israel agreement did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who typically thought a nation should only be established via conventional understanding of the messiah – however joined Reform Judaism, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The predominant version of the consensus, later termed liberal Zionism, was established on a belief about the nation as a democratic and liberal – albeit ethnocentric – state. Numerous US Jews saw the control of local, Syrian and Egypt's territories after 1967 as temporary, thinking that a resolution would soon emerge that would maintain Jewish population majority in Israel proper and regional acceptance of the nation.

Several cohorts of Jewish Americans were raised with support for Israel a fundamental aspect of their Jewish identity. The nation became a key component in Jewish learning. Yom Ha'atzmaut evolved into a religious observance. National symbols decorated most synagogues. Seasonal activities became infused with Hebrew music and learning of contemporary Hebrew, with Israelis visiting and teaching American youth national traditions. Visits to Israel increased and peaked with Birthright Israel during that year, providing no-cost visits to Israel became available to US Jewish youth. The state affected virtually all areas of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Paradoxically, throughout these years following the war, American Jewry grew skilled at religious pluralism. Tolerance and discussion across various Jewish groups expanded.

However regarding Zionism and Israel – there existed tolerance ended. You could be a right-leaning advocate or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and challenging that perspective placed you outside mainstream views – a non-conformist, as Tablet magazine termed it in writing that year.

However currently, during of the devastation of Gaza, starvation, child casualties and outrage regarding the refusal of many fellow Jews who decline to acknowledge their responsibility, that agreement has broken down. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer