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Two years have passed since that mass murder of 7 October 2023, which deeply affected world Jewry like no other occurrence since the establishment of the state of Israel.

Among Jewish people it was shocking. For Israel as a nation, it was deeply humiliating. The whole Zionist endeavor was founded on the assumption that the nation would ensure against similar tragedies from ever happening again.

Some form of retaliation seemed necessary. Yet the chosen course that Israel implemented – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of many thousands non-combatants – represented a decision. And this choice made more difficult the perspective of many US Jewish community members grappled with the October 7th events that set it in motion, and it now complicates their observance of the anniversary. In what way can people mourn and commemorate a tragedy targeting their community in the midst of an atrocity experienced by another people attributed to their identity?

The Complexity of Remembrance

The complexity of mourning lies in the fact that no agreement exists regarding what any of this means. In fact, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the breakdown of a half-century-old unity on Zionism itself.

The origins of a Zionist consensus among American Jewry extends as far back as an early twentieth-century publication by the lawyer subsequently appointed Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis named “The Jewish Problem; Addressing the Challenge”. However, the agreement really takes hold subsequent to the six-day war that year. Previously, US Jewish communities housed a fragile but stable parallel existence across various segments that had diverse perspectives regarding the need for a Jewish nation – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and opponents.

Historical Context

Such cohabitation endured throughout the mid-twentieth century, in remnants of socialist Jewish movements, through the non-aligned Jewish communal organization, among the opposing religious group and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Zionist movement was more spiritual rather than political, and he forbade singing the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, at JTS ordinations during that period. Furthermore, support for Israel the central focus within modern Orthodox Judaism until after the six-day war. Alternative Jewish perspectives remained present.

However following Israel defeated adjacent nations in the six-day war in 1967, taking control of areas such as Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish relationship to the nation evolved considerably. The military success, coupled with longstanding fears of a “second Holocaust”, produced an increasing conviction in the country’s vital role within Jewish identity, and a source of pride for its strength. Rhetoric regarding the “miraculous” nature of the outcome and the freeing of territory provided the Zionist project a religious, potentially salvific, significance. In that triumphant era, much of the remaining ambivalence about Zionism disappeared. In the early 1970s, Commentary magazine editor Norman Podhoretz declared: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The unified position left out the ultra-Orthodox – who largely believed a Jewish state should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of the Messiah – yet included Reform Judaism, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and the majority of non-affiliated Jews. The most popular form of the consensus, later termed left-leaning Zionism, was established on a belief in Israel as a liberal and democratic – albeit ethnocentric – country. Countless Jewish Americans viewed the administration of Palestinian, Syria's and Egypt's territories following the war as temporary, thinking that a solution would soon emerge that would guarantee Jewish population majority in Israel proper and neighbor recognition of the state.

Several cohorts of Jewish Americans were raised with Zionism an essential component of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a central part within religious instruction. Yom Ha'atzmaut turned into a celebration. Blue and white banners decorated many temples. Summer camps were permeated with national melodies and learning of modern Hebrew, with visitors from Israel instructing American teenagers Israeli customs. Travel to Israel increased and achieved record numbers via educational trips in 1999, when a free trip to the nation became available to US Jewish youth. The nation influenced virtually all areas of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Paradoxically, throughout these years post-1967, Jewish Americans grew skilled regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and dialogue between Jewish denominations expanded.

However regarding Zionism and Israel – that represented pluralism found its boundary. You could be a conservative supporter or a liberal advocate, however endorsement of the nation as a majority-Jewish country was a given, and questioning that narrative positioned you outside the consensus – an “Un-Jew”, as one publication termed it in writing in 2021.

But now, amid of the ruin in Gaza, food shortages, child casualties and outrage over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who avoid admitting their responsibility, that unity has collapsed. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer