A Dissolution of the Pro-Israel Agreement Among American Jews: What Is Emerging Now.

Marking two years after the horrific attack of October 7, 2023, an event that shook world Jewry unlike anything else following the founding of the Jewish state.

Among Jewish people the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the Israeli government, the situation represented deeply humiliating. The whole Zionist endeavor had been established on the belief which held that Israel could stop similar tragedies occurring in the future.

Some form of retaliation seemed necessary. However, the particular response Israel pursued – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of tens of thousands ordinary people – represented a decision. And this choice complicated the way numerous Jewish Americans understood the October 7th events that precipitated the response, and it now complicates the community's observance of that date. How can someone honor and reflect on a horrific event affecting their nation while simultaneously an atrocity being inflicted upon other individuals connected to their community?

The Complexity of Grieving

The challenge surrounding remembrance exists because of the fact that there is no consensus regarding the significance of these events. Actually, for the American Jewish community, the recent twenty-four months have witnessed the collapse of a half-century-old agreement regarding Zionism.

The origins of Zionist agreement within US Jewish communities dates back to an early twentieth-century publication written by a legal scholar and then future high court jurist Justice Brandeis titled “Jewish Issues; Finding Solutions”. Yet the unity became firmly established following the Six-Day War in 1967. Before then, US Jewish communities contained a delicate yet functioning coexistence among different factions which maintained different opinions regarding the requirement for a Jewish nation – Zionists, neutral parties and opponents.

Historical Context

This parallel existence persisted during the mid-twentieth century, within remaining elements of socialist Jewish movements, within the neutral US Jewish group, among the opposing American Council for Judaism and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor at JTS, Zionism was more spiritual instead of governmental, and he forbade performance of Israel's anthem, the Israeli national anthem, at religious school events in the early 1960s. Additionally, Zionism and pro-Israelism the central focus for contemporary Orthodox communities before the six-day war. Different Jewish identity models coexisted.

However following Israel defeated neighboring countries in that war that year, occupying territories comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish perspective on Israel evolved considerably. Israel’s victory, combined with longstanding fears of a “second Holocaust”, led to a growing belief about the nation's critical importance for Jewish communities, and a source of pride regarding its endurance. Rhetoric regarding the remarkable quality of the outcome and the freeing of areas provided the movement a spiritual, potentially salvific, meaning. In those heady years, a significant portion of existing hesitation about Zionism vanished. During the seventies, Writer Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Agreement and Restrictions

The Zionist consensus excluded Haredi Jews – who largely believed a Jewish state should only be established via conventional understanding of redemption – however joined Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all unaffiliated individuals. The common interpretation of the unified position, later termed left-leaning Zionism, was established on a belief in Israel as a democratic and liberal – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews viewed the administration of Palestinian, Syrian and Egyptian lands after 1967 as not permanent, believing that an agreement was forthcoming that would maintain Jewish population majority in Israel proper and neighbor recognition of the nation.

Several cohorts of US Jews grew up with support for Israel an essential component of their identity as Jews. The nation became an important element in Jewish learning. Israel’s Independence Day evolved into a religious observance. National symbols adorned most synagogues. Summer camps became infused with national melodies and the study of the language, with Israeli guests educating US young people Israeli customs. Travel to Israel increased and peaked with Birthright Israel by 1999, when a free trip to the nation was provided to young American Jews. Israel permeated virtually all areas of the American Jewish experience.

Changing Dynamics

Interestingly, throughout these years post-1967, American Jewry grew skilled in religious diversity. Tolerance and communication among different Jewish movements increased.

However regarding the Israeli situation – there existed diversity ended. Individuals might align with a right-leaning advocate or a progressive supporter, yet backing Israel as a Jewish state was assumed, and questioning that position placed you beyond accepted boundaries – a non-conformist, as a Jewish periodical termed it in a piece in 2021.

However currently, during of the ruin within Gaza, food shortages, young victims and frustration about the rejection within Jewish communities who avoid admitting their responsibility, that unity has disintegrated. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer