The Dissolution of a Zionist Consensus Within American Jewish Community: What Is Emerging Today.

Two years have passed since the deadly assault of October 7, 2023, which deeply affected Jewish communities worldwide like no other occurrence since the founding of Israel as a nation.

Within Jewish communities the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the Israeli government, the situation represented a significant embarrassment. The entire Zionist movement was founded on the belief that Israel would ensure against things like this occurring in the future.

Military action seemed necessary. But the response Israel pursued – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of numerous non-combatants – was a choice. This selected path created complexity in how many US Jewish community members grappled with the October 7th events that set it in motion, and currently challenges the community's remembrance of the anniversary. How can someone honor and reflect on an atrocity targeting their community during devastation being inflicted upon another people connected to their community?

The Complexity of Mourning

The difficulty of mourning lies in the circumstance where little unity prevails as to the significance of these events. Indeed, for the American Jewish community, the recent twenty-four months have seen the breakdown of a fifty-year unity regarding Zionism.

The early development of a Zionist consensus within US Jewish communities dates back to a 1915 essay authored by an attorney and then future high court jurist Louis Brandeis named “Jewish Issues; Addressing the Challenge”. But the consensus became firmly established after the six-day war that year. Previously, US Jewish communities contained a vulnerable but enduring parallel existence between groups holding diverse perspectives regarding the necessity for Israel – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Historical Context

This parallel existence endured during the 1950s and 60s, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, through the non-aligned Jewish communal organization, among the opposing Jewish organization and other organizations. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the chancellor at JTS, Zionism was primarily theological instead of governmental, and he prohibited the singing of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, during seminary ceremonies in the early 1960s. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the centerpiece for contemporary Orthodox communities until after the 1967 conflict. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.

Yet after Israel defeated neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict that year, occupying territories comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish perspective on the nation underwent significant transformation. The military success, along with longstanding fears regarding repeated persecution, produced a growing belief in the country’s vital role for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Rhetoric concerning the remarkable quality of the outcome and the reclaiming of land assigned Zionism a religious, potentially salvific, importance. In those heady years, much of existing hesitation toward Israel vanished. In that decade, Writer Norman Podhoretz stated: “Everyone supports Zionism today.”

The Agreement and Its Boundaries

The unified position excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who typically thought Israel should only be established by a traditional rendering of the messiah – however joined Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The most popular form of this agreement, identified as progressive Zionism, was founded on a belief regarding Israel as a liberal and free – while majority-Jewish – country. Many American Jews considered the control of Arab, Syrian and Egyptian lands post-1967 as temporary, thinking that a resolution would soon emerge that would ensure Jewish demographic dominance in pre-1967 Israel and regional acceptance of Israel.

Multiple generations of American Jews were raised with pro-Israel ideology a core part of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into an important element in Jewish learning. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. National symbols decorated most synagogues. Youth programs were permeated with Israeli songs and learning of the language, with Israelis visiting and teaching US young people national traditions. Trips to the nation increased and achieved record numbers with Birthright Israel in 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation became available to US Jewish youth. The state affected virtually all areas of US Jewish life.

Evolving Situation

Paradoxically, during this period post-1967, US Jewish communities became adept regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and dialogue among different Jewish movements increased.

Except when it came to the Israeli situation – that represented diversity found its boundary. You could be a conservative supporter or a leftwing Zionist, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and criticizing that perspective placed you outside mainstream views – an “Un-Jew”, as Tablet magazine labeled it in an essay in 2021.

But now, during of the ruin in Gaza, famine, young victims and outrage regarding the refusal within Jewish communities who decline to acknowledge their involvement, that agreement has collapsed. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer