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Marking two years after the deadly assault of 7 October 2023, which shook world Jewry unlike anything else following the creation of the Jewish state.

For Jews it was deeply traumatic. For Israel as a nation, it was a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist project rested on the belief that the nation would prevent things like this repeating.

Some form of retaliation was inevitable. However, the particular response Israel pursued – the widespread destruction of Gaza, the deaths and injuries of many thousands non-combatants – was a choice. And this choice made more difficult the way numerous American Jews understood the attack that precipitated the response, and it now complicates the community's observance of the anniversary. How can someone grieve and remember a tragedy against your people while simultaneously devastation experienced by a different population in your name?

The Difficulty of Grieving

The difficulty of mourning exists because of the fact that no agreement exists as to what any of this means. In fact, for the American Jewish community, this two-year period have experienced the disintegration of a fifty-year unity about the Zionist movement.

The beginnings of pro-Israel unity within US Jewish communities can be traced to an early twentieth-century publication authored by an attorney and then future Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis titled “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement really takes hold after the six-day war in 1967. Earlier, American Jewry housed a fragile but stable coexistence across various segments holding different opinions regarding the need of a Jewish state – pro-Israel advocates, non-Zionists and opponents.

Previous Developments

This parallel existence endured throughout the post-war decades, in remnants of leftist Jewish organizations, within the neutral American Jewish Committee, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and comparable entities. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the head at JTS, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological rather than political, and he prohibited singing Israel's anthem, Hatikvah, at religious school events in those years. Furthermore, Zionism and pro-Israelism the centerpiece within modern Orthodox Judaism until after the 1967 conflict. Jewish identitarian alternatives existed alongside.

But after Israel defeated adjacent nations during the 1967 conflict in 1967, taking control of areas including the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish relationship to the nation underwent significant transformation. The military success, coupled with longstanding fears about another genocide, led to a growing belief in the country’s vital role to the Jewish people, and generated admiration regarding its endurance. Rhetoric regarding the “miraculous” nature of the outcome and the “liberation” of areas gave the Zionist project a spiritual, almost redemptive, importance. During that enthusiastic period, much of previous uncertainty regarding Zionism vanished. In that decade, Commentary magazine editor the commentator declared: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The unified position did not include strictly Orthodox communities – who largely believed a nation should only emerge via conventional understanding of the Messiah – yet included Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and most secular Jews. The most popular form of this agreement, identified as progressive Zionism, was based on the conviction regarding Israel as a liberal and liberal – while majority-Jewish – nation. Numerous US Jews considered the control of local, Syrian and Egypt's territories following the war as provisional, believing that a solution would soon emerge that would ensure Jewish population majority within Israel's original borders and neighbor recognition of the state.

Multiple generations of American Jews were raised with pro-Israel ideology an essential component of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into an important element in Jewish learning. Israeli national day became a Jewish holiday. Israeli flags decorated religious institutions. Youth programs integrated with Israeli songs and the study of the language, with visitors from Israel and teaching US young people Israeli culture. Visits to Israel grew and achieved record numbers with Birthright Israel during that year, offering complimentary travel to the nation was provided to Jewish young adults. Israel permeated almost the entirety of Jewish American identity.

Changing Dynamics

Interestingly, throughout these years after 1967, Jewish Americans became adept regarding denominational coexistence. Open-mindedness and dialogue across various Jewish groups expanded.

However regarding Zionism and Israel – there existed tolerance found its boundary. You could be a right-leaning advocate or a leftwing Zionist, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish state was a given, and challenging that position categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – outside the community, as a Jewish periodical described it in writing recently.

But now, amid of the ruin in Gaza, food shortages, young victims and outrage regarding the refusal within Jewish communities who refuse to recognize their responsibility, that agreement has collapsed. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer