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It has been that mass murder of October 7, 2023, an event that deeply affected Jewish communities worldwide more than any event since the creation of Israel as a nation.

Within Jewish communities it was deeply traumatic. For the state of Israel, it was deeply humiliating. The whole Zionist project was founded on the assumption which held that the Jewish state could stop similar tragedies from ever happening again.

Some form of retaliation appeared unavoidable. But the response that Israel implemented – the obliteration of Gaza, the casualties of tens of thousands ordinary people – was a choice. And this choice made more difficult the perspective of many American Jews processed the October 7th events that precipitated the response, and currently challenges the community's observance of the day. How does one honor and reflect on a tragedy targeting their community during a catastrophe done to another people connected to their community?

The Complexity of Remembrance

The difficulty surrounding remembrance lies in the reality that little unity prevails about the implications of these developments. Indeed, for the American Jewish community, the recent twenty-four months have witnessed the collapse of a half-century-old unity regarding Zionism.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement among American Jewry can be traced to writings from 1915 authored by an attorney and then future high court jurist Justice Brandeis called “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. Yet the unity truly solidified following the Six-Day War that year. Earlier, American Jewry maintained a fragile but stable coexistence among different factions holding diverse perspectives about the requirement for a Jewish nation – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and opponents.

Historical Context

Such cohabitation continued throughout the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of socialist Jewish movements, through the non-aligned American Jewish Committee, among the opposing American Council for Judaism and other organizations. For Louis Finkelstein, the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Zionist movement had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he prohibited performance of Hatikvah, the national song, at religious school events in those years. Additionally, Zionism and pro-Israelism the centerpiece for contemporary Orthodox communities before the six-day war. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.

Yet after Israel defeated its neighbors in that war during that period, seizing land including Palestinian territories, Gaza, the Golan and East Jerusalem, US Jewish relationship to the country changed dramatically. Israel’s victory, coupled with longstanding fears regarding repeated persecution, led to an increasing conviction regarding Israel's vital role to the Jewish people, and created pride in its resilience. Discourse regarding the “miraculous” nature of the victory and the “liberation” of land gave Zionism a spiritual, almost redemptive, meaning. In those heady years, a significant portion of previous uncertainty toward Israel dissipated. During the seventies, Commentary magazine editor Podhoretz declared: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Agreement and Restrictions

The unified position left out strictly Orthodox communities – who generally maintained Israel should only be established via conventional understanding of the messiah – yet included Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and most non-affiliated Jews. The common interpretation of this agreement, later termed left-leaning Zionism, was based on a belief about the nation as a liberal and democratic – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews saw the administration of local, Syrian and Egypt's territories following the war as provisional, assuming that a solution was forthcoming that would guarantee Jewish population majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the state.

Multiple generations of US Jews were thus brought up with support for Israel a core part of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a key component of Jewish education. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. Blue and white banners adorned religious institutions. Seasonal activities became infused with Israeli songs and education of contemporary Hebrew, with Israelis visiting educating American teenagers national traditions. Travel to Israel increased and achieved record numbers with Birthright Israel by 1999, offering complimentary travel to Israel became available to US Jewish youth. The state affected almost the entirety of Jewish American identity.

Changing Dynamics

Paradoxically, during this period after 1967, Jewish Americans developed expertise in religious diversity. Tolerance and discussion between Jewish denominations expanded.

Except when it came to Zionism and Israel – there existed tolerance ended. You could be a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish state remained unquestioned, and challenging that narrative categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – a non-conformist, as Tablet magazine labeled it in writing recently.

Yet presently, amid of the destruction of Gaza, food shortages, young victims and anger over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their responsibility, that consensus has disintegrated. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer