A Breakdown of the Zionist Consensus Within American Jewish Community: What Is Emerging Today.

It has been the deadly assault of 7 October 2023, an event that deeply affected Jewish communities worldwide more than any event following the establishment of the Jewish state.

For Jews the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the state of Israel, it was deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist movement rested on the presumption which held that Israel could stop similar tragedies repeating.

Military action was inevitable. Yet the chosen course that Israel implemented – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the casualties of numerous ordinary people – was a choice. This particular approach complicated the way numerous US Jewish community members understood the initial assault that precipitated the response, and presently makes difficult their observance of the anniversary. How does one mourn and commemorate an atrocity targeting their community in the midst of a catastrophe done to other individuals in your name?

The Complexity of Grieving

The challenge in grieving lies in the fact that there is no consensus about the implications of these developments. Actually, for the American Jewish community, the last two years have seen the breakdown of a decades-long unity on Zionism itself.

The origins of pro-Israel unity among American Jewry can be traced to a 1915 essay authored by an attorney and then future Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis titled “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. But the consensus truly solidified following the six-day war that year. Earlier, American Jewry maintained a vulnerable but enduring coexistence between groups which maintained a range of views regarding the necessity for a Jewish nation – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Historical Context

Such cohabitation continued through the mid-twentieth century, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, within the neutral Jewish communal organization, within the critical Jewish organization and comparable entities. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the leader of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological instead of governmental, and he did not permit the singing of the Israeli national anthem, the national song, during seminary ceremonies in those years. Additionally, support for Israel the centerpiece of Modern Orthodoxy until after the 1967 conflict. Different Jewish identity models coexisted.

But after Israel overcame its neighbors in the six-day war during that period, occupying territories comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, US Jewish connection with the nation changed dramatically. Israel’s victory, coupled with longstanding fears regarding repeated persecution, led to a developing perspective regarding Israel's critical importance for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Language regarding the “miraculous” aspect of the success and the reclaiming of territory provided Zionism a spiritual, almost redemptive, importance. In those heady years, considerable previous uncertainty regarding Zionism disappeared. During the seventies, Commentary magazine editor Podhoretz declared: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Unity and Its Boundaries

The unified position excluded Haredi Jews – who largely believed Israel should only emerge by a traditional rendering of redemption – but united Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all unaffiliated individuals. The most popular form of this agreement, identified as left-leaning Zionism, was established on a belief about the nation as a progressive and free – while majority-Jewish – state. Numerous US Jews considered the administration of Arab, Syrian and Egypt's territories post-1967 as provisional, thinking that a solution was forthcoming that would guarantee Jewish demographic dominance in Israel proper and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.

Two generations of American Jews grew up with Zionism an essential component of their Jewish identity. Israel became a central part of Jewish education. Israel’s Independence Day became a Jewish holiday. National symbols were displayed in many temples. Summer camps became infused with Hebrew music and education of contemporary Hebrew, with visitors from Israel educating American youth Israeli customs. Trips to the nation grew and peaked with Birthright Israel during that year, when a free trip to the nation became available to young American Jews. The nation influenced nearly every aspect of US Jewish life.

Shifting Landscape

Ironically, in these decades following the war, American Jewry became adept in religious diversity. Acceptance and communication across various Jewish groups grew.

However regarding the Israeli situation – that’s where pluralism reached its limit. Individuals might align with a conservative supporter or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and challenging that narrative positioned you outside mainstream views – an “Un-Jew”, as one publication described it in writing in 2021.

However currently, under the weight of the ruin within Gaza, famine, dead and orphaned children and outrage about the rejection of many fellow Jews who refuse to recognize their involvement, that unity has disintegrated. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer