The Breakdown of the Pro-Israel Agreement Among American Jews: What Is Taking Shape Now.
It has been the mass murder of 7 October 2023, which shook Jewish communities worldwide more than any event following the establishment of the state of Israel.
For Jews it was profoundly disturbing. For Israel as a nation, it was a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist project was founded on the assumption which held that the Jewish state could stop similar tragedies repeating.
A response appeared unavoidable. But the response undertaken by Israel – the obliteration of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of tens of thousands ordinary people – constituted a specific policy. And this choice complicated how many US Jewish community members understood the initial assault that set it in motion, and it now complicates their remembrance of the anniversary. How can someone honor and reflect on a tragedy targeting their community during an atrocity being inflicted upon another people connected to their community?
The Challenge of Remembrance
The difficulty in grieving lies in the fact that there is no consensus regarding the significance of these events. Actually, for the American Jewish community, this two-year period have experienced the disintegration of a fifty-year unity on Zionism itself.
The origins of Zionist agreement across American Jewish populations can be traced to an early twentieth-century publication authored by an attorney who would later become supreme court justice Justice Brandeis called “The Jewish Question; Finding Solutions”. Yet the unity became firmly established following the 1967 conflict during 1967. Earlier, US Jewish communities housed a fragile but stable coexistence among different factions that had different opinions concerning the requirement for a Jewish nation – Zionists, non-Zionists and opponents.
Background Information
Such cohabitation persisted during the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of Jewish socialism, within the neutral Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and similar institutions. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the head of the theological institution, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he forbade performance of Hatikvah, Hatikvah, at religious school events in those years. Nor were Zionist ideology the central focus within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the six-day war. Different Jewish identity models existed alongside.
Yet after Israel routed its neighbors in that war in 1967, taking control of areas such as the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish relationship to Israel evolved considerably. The triumphant outcome, combined with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, produced an increasing conviction regarding Israel's vital role for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Language about the “miraculous” quality of the outcome and the “liberation” of territory gave the movement a spiritual, even messianic, significance. In those heady years, much of previous uncertainty about Zionism dissipated. During the seventies, Writer Norman Podhoretz stated: “We are all Zionists now.”
The Consensus and Its Boundaries
The Zionist consensus left out strictly Orthodox communities – who largely believed Israel should only emerge via conventional understanding of the Messiah – however joined Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of non-affiliated Jews. The predominant version of the unified position, identified as left-leaning Zionism, was founded on the idea about the nation as a liberal and free – though Jewish-centered – state. Countless Jewish Americans viewed the administration of local, Syrian and Egyptian lands post-1967 as provisional, believing that a solution was forthcoming that would ensure Jewish population majority in Israel proper and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.
Several cohorts of US Jews were thus brought up with Zionism a core part of their Jewish identity. The state transformed into an important element of Jewish education. Israel’s Independence Day turned into a celebration. Israeli flags decorated most synagogues. Seasonal activities integrated with Israeli songs and the study of modern Hebrew, with Israelis visiting educating American youth Israeli culture. Trips to the nation expanded and peaked with Birthright Israel during that year, when a free trip to Israel was provided to young American Jews. The state affected nearly every aspect of the American Jewish experience.
Evolving Situation
Ironically, throughout these years post-1967, American Jewry developed expertise at religious pluralism. Acceptance and discussion between Jewish denominations increased.
However regarding the Israeli situation – that’s where tolerance ended. One could identify as a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, but support for Israel as a majority-Jewish country was a given, and questioning that position categorized you outside mainstream views – an “Un-Jew”, as Tablet magazine labeled it in writing in 2021.
However currently, amid of the devastation in Gaza, famine, child casualties and frustration about the rejection by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their responsibility, that consensus has broken down. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer
