A Collapse of the Pro-Israel Agreement Within American Jews: What Is Emerging Today.

Marking two years after that deadly assault of 7 October 2023, which shook Jewish communities worldwide more than any event following the establishment of Israel as a nation.

For Jews the event proved deeply traumatic. For the Israeli government, the situation represented a profound disgrace. The whole Zionist endeavor rested on the presumption which held that the Jewish state could stop similar tragedies from ever happening again.

Some form of retaliation seemed necessary. Yet the chosen course Israel pursued – the widespread destruction of Gaza, the casualties of numerous ordinary people – was a choice. This selected path created complexity in the perspective of many American Jews processed the attack that precipitated the response, and presently makes difficult their commemoration of the day. In what way can people grieve and remember a tragedy affecting their nation in the midst of an atrocity being inflicted upon a different population connected to their community?

The Challenge of Mourning

The difficulty surrounding remembrance exists because of the fact that there is no consensus regarding the implications of these developments. Indeed, within US Jewish circles, this two-year period have seen the collapse of a decades-long consensus regarding Zionism.

The origins of Zionist agreement across American Jewish populations extends as far back as an early twentieth-century publication by the lawyer subsequently appointed supreme court justice Justice Brandeis titled “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. Yet the unity really takes hold after the Six-Day War during 1967. Before then, Jewish Americans maintained a delicate yet functioning cohabitation between groups holding diverse perspectives regarding the need of a Jewish state – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Historical Context

Such cohabitation continued during the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of Jewish socialism, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, within the critical religious group and similar institutions. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he forbade the singing of Hatikvah, Hatikvah, during seminary ceremonies during that period. Furthermore, support for Israel the central focus of Modern Orthodoxy before that war. Alternative Jewish perspectives remained present.

Yet after Israel defeated neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict that year, occupying territories such as Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish perspective on the country changed dramatically. Israel’s victory, along with persistent concerns regarding repeated persecution, resulted in a developing perspective about the nation's vital role within Jewish identity, and generated admiration in its resilience. Language regarding the remarkable quality of the victory and the freeing of areas provided the movement a theological, even messianic, meaning. During that enthusiastic period, a significant portion of the remaining ambivalence regarding Zionism dissipated. In that decade, Writer the commentator declared: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Agreement and Restrictions

The unified position did not include Haredi Jews – who largely believed a Jewish state should only emerge by a traditional rendering of redemption – yet included Reform Judaism, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and nearly all non-affiliated Jews. The common interpretation of this agreement, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was established on the idea regarding Israel as a liberal and liberal – albeit ethnocentric – state. Countless Jewish Americans saw the control of Palestinian, Syria's and Egypt's territories following the war as temporary, assuming that an agreement would soon emerge that would maintain a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.

Several cohorts of US Jews were raised with support for Israel a core part of their Jewish identity. Israel became an important element within religious instruction. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. National symbols decorated many temples. Seasonal activities integrated with Hebrew music and education of contemporary Hebrew, with Israeli guests and teaching American youth Israeli customs. Visits to Israel increased and peaked through Birthright programs in 1999, providing no-cost visits to the country was offered to US Jewish youth. Israel permeated almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Evolving Situation

Ironically, in these decades following the war, Jewish Americans developed expertise regarding denominational coexistence. Open-mindedness and communication among different Jewish movements expanded.

Yet concerning support for Israel – that’s where diversity found its boundary. Individuals might align with a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and questioning that position placed you beyond accepted boundaries – an “Un-Jew”, as a Jewish periodical termed it in a piece in 2021.

Yet presently, under the weight of the destruction in Gaza, starvation, child casualties and outrage regarding the refusal of many fellow Jews who decline to acknowledge their involvement, that unity has disintegrated. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer