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Marking two years after the mass murder of 7 October 2023, which deeply affected world Jewry like no other occurrence following the founding of the Jewish state.

Within Jewish communities it was deeply traumatic. For Israel as a nation, the situation represented deeply humiliating. The whole Zionist project was founded on the assumption that the Jewish state would ensure against similar tragedies from ever happening again.

A response was inevitable. But the response undertaken by Israel – the comprehensive devastation of Gaza, the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of civilians – constituted a specific policy. And this choice made more difficult the way numerous Jewish Americans processed the attack that set it in motion, and it now complicates their commemoration of the anniversary. How can someone grieve and remember a tragedy affecting their nation during devastation experienced by another people attributed to their identity?

The Difficulty of Mourning

The challenge surrounding remembrance exists because of the fact that little unity prevails regarding the significance of these events. In fact, for the American Jewish community, the last two years have seen the disintegration of a decades-long agreement about the Zionist movement.

The origins of pro-Israel unity among American Jewry dates back to a 1915 essay authored by an attorney and then future Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis called “The Jewish Problem; Finding Solutions”. Yet the unity truly solidified subsequent to the six-day war during 1967. Before then, US Jewish communities housed a fragile but stable coexistence across various segments which maintained a range of views regarding the need for a Jewish nation – Zionists, non-Zionists and opponents.

Historical Context

Such cohabitation continued throughout the post-war decades, in remnants of Jewish socialism, within the neutral American Jewish Committee, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and similar institutions. For Louis Finkelstein, the leader at JTS, the Zionist movement had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he prohibited the singing of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, at religious school events in the early 1960s. Additionally, Zionism and pro-Israelism the main element within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the six-day war. Different Jewish identity models coexisted.

But after Israel overcame its neighbors in that war that year, occupying territories comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish perspective on the nation changed dramatically. The military success, combined with longstanding fears about another genocide, produced a developing perspective regarding Israel's essential significance within Jewish identity, and generated admiration for its strength. Rhetoric regarding the “miraculous” quality of the victory and the freeing of land gave the movement a religious, even messianic, meaning. In those heady years, a significant portion of existing hesitation about Zionism vanished. In that decade, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Agreement and Its Limits

The unified position left out Haredi Jews – who generally maintained a Jewish state should only emerge through traditional interpretation of the messiah – however joined Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and the majority of non-affiliated Jews. The most popular form of the consensus, identified as liberal Zionism, was founded on the idea about the nation as a liberal and democratic – while majority-Jewish – state. Numerous US Jews saw the occupation of Arab, Syria's and Egyptian lands post-1967 as provisional, assuming that an agreement was imminent that would ensure Jewish population majority in pre-1967 Israel and regional acceptance of the nation.

Several cohorts of Jewish Americans grew up with support for Israel a core part of their Jewish identity. Israel became a key component within religious instruction. Israel’s Independence Day evolved into a religious observance. Israeli flags decorated most synagogues. Seasonal activities became infused with national melodies and learning of modern Hebrew, with Israeli guests and teaching US young people national traditions. Visits to Israel grew and peaked with Birthright Israel in 1999, providing no-cost visits to the country became available to US Jewish youth. The state affected almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Evolving Situation

Ironically, in these decades following the war, Jewish Americans became adept at religious pluralism. Tolerance and communication among different Jewish movements increased.

Yet concerning Zionism and Israel – there existed pluralism ended. One could identify as a right-leaning advocate or a progressive supporter, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish homeland remained unquestioned, and criticizing that perspective positioned you outside mainstream views – a non-conformist, as one publication described it in a piece that year.

But now, amid of the ruin of Gaza, food shortages, child casualties and anger over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who refuse to recognize their complicity, that unity has broken down. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer