A Dissolution of a Pro-Israel Consensus Within US Jewish Community: What Is Emerging Now.

It has been that mass murder of 7 October 2023, which deeply affected global Jewish populations unlike anything else since the founding of Israel as a nation.

Among Jewish people it was shocking. For Israel as a nation, it was a profound disgrace. The entire Zionist movement was founded on the assumption that the Jewish state would prevent similar tragedies repeating.

A response was inevitable. However, the particular response undertaken by Israel – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the casualties of numerous ordinary people – constituted a specific policy. This selected path made more difficult how many American Jews understood the initial assault that triggered it, and currently challenges their remembrance of the anniversary. In what way can people honor and reflect on a horrific event against your people during devastation experienced by other individuals in your name?

The Complexity of Grieving

The difficulty of mourning exists because of the circumstance where there is no consensus about what any of this means. In fact, within US Jewish circles, this two-year period have witnessed the collapse of a half-century-old consensus about the Zionist movement.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement within US Jewish communities extends as far back as a 1915 essay written by a legal scholar subsequently appointed supreme court justice Louis D. Brandeis titled “The Jewish Problem; Addressing the Challenge”. However, the agreement became firmly established after the 1967 conflict that year. Previously, US Jewish communities maintained a fragile but stable cohabitation across various segments which maintained different opinions about the necessity for Israel – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Background Information

This parallel existence endured during the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, through the non-aligned US Jewish group, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and other organizations. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the chancellor at JTS, pro-Israel ideology was more spiritual instead of governmental, and he did not permit singing the Israeli national anthem, the national song, during seminary ceremonies in the early 1960s. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the main element for contemporary Orthodox communities until after that war. Alternative Jewish perspectives remained present.

However following Israel overcame its neighbors in the six-day war during that period, taking control of areas comprising the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish connection with the country changed dramatically. Israel’s victory, along with persistent concerns about another genocide, resulted in a growing belief about the nation's essential significance for Jewish communities, and a source of pride regarding its endurance. Rhetoric regarding the “miraculous” quality of the outcome and the freeing of territory gave the movement a spiritual, even messianic, importance. In those heady years, a significant portion of previous uncertainty regarding Zionism dissipated. In that decade, Publication editor Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Unity and Its Limits

The Zionist consensus excluded Haredi Jews – who typically thought a Jewish state should only emerge through traditional interpretation of the messiah – yet included Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all unaffiliated individuals. The common interpretation of the unified position, what became known as liberal Zionism, was based on a belief regarding Israel as a progressive and free – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews saw the control of Palestinian, Syria's and Egypt's territories following the war as not permanent, thinking that a solution would soon emerge that would maintain Jewish demographic dominance in pre-1967 Israel and regional acceptance of Israel.

Two generations of American Jews were thus brought up with pro-Israel ideology a core part of their religious identity. The state transformed into a key component in Jewish learning. Israeli national day evolved into a religious observance. Blue and white banners decorated many temples. Summer camps became infused with national melodies and education of the language, with Israeli guests educating US young people national traditions. Trips to the nation increased and reached new heights through Birthright programs by 1999, offering complimentary travel to Israel was offered to Jewish young adults. Israel permeated nearly every aspect of US Jewish life.

Evolving Situation

Ironically, in these decades after 1967, US Jewish communities became adept regarding denominational coexistence. Open-mindedness and dialogue among different Jewish movements expanded.

Yet concerning the Israeli situation – there existed diversity found its boundary. You could be a conservative supporter or a progressive supporter, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish homeland was assumed, and questioning that narrative positioned you outside the consensus – an “Un-Jew”, as one publication described it in a piece recently.

But now, amid of the ruin in Gaza, starvation, dead and orphaned children and anger over the denial of many fellow Jews who avoid admitting their involvement, that unity has broken down. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer