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It has been the mass murder of October 7, 2023, an event that profoundly impacted world Jewry like no other occurrence following the creation of Israel as a nation.

For Jews it was deeply traumatic. For Israel as a nation, the situation represented deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist movement had been established on the belief that the Jewish state would prevent such atrocities occurring in the future.

Some form of retaliation was inevitable. But the response Israel pursued – the widespread destruction of Gaza, the casualties of tens of thousands ordinary people – represented a decision. This selected path complicated how many Jewish Americans grappled with the attack that set it in motion, and it now complicates their observance of the anniversary. How can someone grieve and remember a horrific event affecting their nation in the midst of a catastrophe experienced by a different population connected to their community?

The Complexity of Grieving

The challenge of mourning exists because of the reality that there is no consensus about the implications of these developments. Indeed, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have seen the disintegration of a fifty-year unity on Zionism itself.

The early development of Zionist agreement among American Jewry dates back to writings from 1915 written by a legal scholar and then future Supreme Court judge Justice Brandeis titled “The Jewish Question; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement really takes hold following the six-day war during 1967. Previously, US Jewish communities contained a vulnerable but enduring parallel existence across various segments holding a range of views concerning the necessity for Israel – Zionists, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Background Information

This parallel existence endured during the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of socialist Jewish movements, within the neutral American Jewish Committee, in the anti-Zionist religious group and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the leader at JTS, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological instead of governmental, and he forbade performance of the Israeli national anthem, the national song, at religious school events during that period. Nor were Zionist ideology the central focus within modern Orthodox Judaism until after the 1967 conflict. Different Jewish identity models coexisted.

However following Israel defeated its neighbors during the 1967 conflict that year, occupying territories including Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish perspective on the country evolved considerably. Israel’s victory, along with persistent concerns about another genocide, led to a growing belief in the country’s critical importance for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Language about the “miraculous” aspect of the success and the reclaiming of land provided the Zionist project a spiritual, even messianic, meaning. During that enthusiastic period, a significant portion of the remaining ambivalence about Zionism vanished. In that decade, Commentary magazine editor the commentator famously proclaimed: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The pro-Israel agreement did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who generally maintained a nation should only emerge through traditional interpretation of the messiah – yet included Reform, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and nearly all non-affiliated Jews. The most popular form of this agreement, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was founded on a belief regarding Israel as a democratic and liberal – albeit ethnocentric – country. Countless Jewish Americans considered the administration of Palestinian, Syria's and Egypt's territories post-1967 as provisional, believing that a resolution was forthcoming that would maintain Jewish population majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.

Multiple generations of American Jews grew up with pro-Israel ideology an essential component of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a central part in Jewish learning. Yom Ha'atzmaut evolved into a religious observance. Blue and white banners decorated many temples. Seasonal activities were permeated with Hebrew music and the study of contemporary Hebrew, with visitors from Israel educating American teenagers Israeli culture. Trips to the nation expanded and peaked through Birthright programs in 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation became available to young American Jews. Israel permeated nearly every aspect of the American Jewish experience.

Changing Dynamics

Interestingly, in these decades following the war, American Jewry grew skilled at religious pluralism. Open-mindedness and communication between Jewish denominations increased.

Yet concerning the Israeli situation – there existed pluralism found its boundary. One could identify as a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and questioning that narrative categorized you outside mainstream views – outside the community, as Tablet magazine described it in an essay in 2021.

But now, amid of the devastation in Gaza, famine, dead and orphaned children and frustration over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their responsibility, that unity has disintegrated. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer