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

For Jews the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the Israeli government, it was a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist movement had been established on the assumption which held that the nation would prevent such atrocities repeating.

Some form of retaliation was inevitable. But the response that Israel implemented – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the casualties of tens of thousands of civilians – represented a decision. This selected path created complexity in how many US Jewish community members understood the attack that set it in motion, and it now complicates their observance of that date. How can someone mourn and commemorate a tragedy targeting their community while simultaneously an atrocity done to a different population in your name?

The Challenge of Mourning

The difficulty of mourning stems from the reality that little unity prevails as to the significance of these events. Indeed, for the American Jewish community, the last two years have experienced the collapse of a fifty-year agreement on Zionism itself.

The origins of pro-Israel unity across American Jewish populations dates back to a 1915 essay written by a legal scholar subsequently appointed supreme court justice Justice Brandeis named “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement really takes hold after the Six-Day War that year. Previously, US Jewish communities housed a fragile but stable coexistence among different factions which maintained different opinions about the need for a Jewish nation – Zionists, non-Zionists and opponents.

Background Information

Such cohabitation continued during the mid-twentieth century, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, among the opposing religious group and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the leader at JTS, the Zionist movement was more spiritual rather than political, and he forbade performance of Israel's anthem, the national song, at religious school events during that period. Nor were Zionist ideology the central focus for contemporary Orthodox communities until after the six-day war. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.

However following Israel routed neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict during that period, taking control of areas comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza, the Golan and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish connection with Israel evolved considerably. Israel’s victory, coupled with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, resulted in a developing perspective about the nation's essential significance for Jewish communities, and generated admiration for its strength. Language concerning the “miraculous” nature of the success and the “liberation” of territory provided the movement a spiritual, potentially salvific, significance. During that enthusiastic period, a significant portion of previous uncertainty regarding Zionism disappeared. During the seventies, Commentary magazine editor the commentator stated: “Everyone supports Zionism today.”

The Unity and Its Boundaries

The unified position excluded the ultra-Orthodox – who generally maintained a Jewish state should only emerge via conventional understanding of the Messiah – yet included Reform, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The common interpretation of the consensus, identified as progressive Zionism, was founded on a belief in Israel as a progressive and democratic – while majority-Jewish – country. Numerous US Jews saw the occupation of Arab, Syria's and Egyptian lands following the war as not permanent, assuming that an agreement was forthcoming that would guarantee Jewish demographic dominance within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of Israel.

Multiple generations of American Jews grew up with support for Israel an essential component of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a key component of Jewish education. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. National symbols decorated many temples. Youth programs became infused with Israeli songs and education of modern Hebrew, with Israeli guests educating American youth Israeli culture. Travel to Israel grew and peaked via educational trips in 1999, providing no-cost visits to Israel became available to Jewish young adults. Israel permeated almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Paradoxically, in these decades after 1967, American Jewry grew skilled at religious pluralism. Acceptance and discussion across various Jewish groups increased.

However regarding the Israeli situation – there existed diversity found its boundary. You could be a rightwing Zionist or a progressive supporter, however endorsement of the nation as a majority-Jewish country was a given, and criticizing that narrative positioned you beyond accepted boundaries – outside the community, as Tablet magazine termed it in a piece that year.

However currently, during of the devastation in Gaza, famine, dead and orphaned children and outrage regarding the refusal within Jewish communities who decline to acknowledge their responsibility, that unity has disintegrated. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer