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Two years have passed since the mass murder of 7 October 2023, which profoundly impacted world Jewry more than any event since the creation of the Jewish state.

Within Jewish communities the event proved shocking. For the Israeli government, the situation represented a significant embarrassment. The entire Zionist movement was founded on the assumption which held that the nation would prevent similar tragedies repeating.

A response was inevitable. But the response Israel pursued – the obliteration of Gaza, the deaths and injuries of many thousands ordinary people – was a choice. This selected path created complexity in the way numerous US Jewish community members understood the October 7th events that triggered it, and it now complicates their observance of the anniversary. In what way can people honor and reflect on a horrific event targeting their community during an atrocity done to a different population in your name?

The Challenge of Remembrance

The challenge surrounding remembrance stems from the reality that little unity prevails as to the implications of these developments. Indeed, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have witnessed the breakdown of a decades-long unity regarding Zionism.

The beginnings of a Zionist consensus among American Jewry can be traced to writings from 1915 by the lawyer and then future Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis called “The Jewish Problem; Finding Solutions”. Yet the unity really takes hold after the 1967 conflict in 1967. Previously, US Jewish communities maintained a fragile but stable cohabitation between groups holding a range of views concerning the requirement of a Jewish state – Zionists, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Previous Developments

Such cohabitation persisted throughout the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of socialist Jewish movements, within the neutral Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist Jewish organization and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the head at JTS, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance than political, and he prohibited singing the Israeli national anthem, the national song, at religious school events during that period. Additionally, Zionist ideology the centerpiece within modern Orthodox Judaism until after the 1967 conflict. Different Jewish identity models remained present.

Yet after Israel routed neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict in 1967, occupying territories comprising the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, US Jewish relationship to the country evolved considerably. Israel’s victory, coupled with longstanding fears about another genocide, resulted in a developing perspective in the country’s essential significance to the Jewish people, and created pride regarding its endurance. Discourse about the extraordinary aspect of the outcome and the reclaiming of territory assigned the movement a theological, almost redemptive, meaning. During that enthusiastic period, considerable previous uncertainty about Zionism vanished. During the seventies, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Everyone supports Zionism today.”

The Unity and Its Boundaries

The pro-Israel agreement excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who largely believed Israel should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of the Messiah – yet included Reform Judaism, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The most popular form of the consensus, identified as progressive Zionism, was founded on a belief regarding Israel as a liberal and free – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews viewed the occupation of Arab, Syria's and Egyptian lands post-1967 as temporary, assuming that an agreement was imminent that would guarantee a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and neighbor recognition of Israel.

Several cohorts of American Jews were thus brought up with pro-Israel ideology a core part of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a central part within religious instruction. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. Israeli flags decorated religious institutions. Seasonal activities were permeated with national melodies and the study of the language, with visitors from Israel educating American youth Israeli customs. Trips to the nation increased and peaked through Birthright programs in 1999, offering complimentary travel to the country became available to young American Jews. Israel permeated nearly every aspect of Jewish American identity.

Changing Dynamics

Interestingly, throughout these years after 1967, Jewish Americans developed expertise regarding denominational coexistence. Open-mindedness and communication across various Jewish groups grew.

However regarding the Israeli situation – there existed pluralism reached its limit. Individuals might align with a right-leaning advocate or a liberal advocate, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and questioning that narrative positioned you beyond accepted boundaries – a non-conformist, as one publication labeled it in a piece recently.

Yet presently, amid of the devastation of Gaza, food shortages, dead and orphaned children and outrage over the denial within Jewish communities who decline to acknowledge their complicity, that unity has broken down. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer