The Breakdown of a Zionist Consensus Among American Jews: What's Taking Shape Today.
Marking two years after the mass murder of October 7, 2023, an event that deeply affected Jewish communities worldwide unlike anything else following the founding of the Jewish state.
For Jews the event proved deeply traumatic. For Israel as a nation, it was a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist project was founded on the belief that the nation would prevent similar tragedies from ever happening again.
Military action appeared unavoidable. However, the particular response Israel pursued – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of numerous ordinary people – constituted a specific policy. This particular approach complicated how many American Jews understood the attack that precipitated the response, and it now complicates their observance of that date. How can someone mourn and commemorate an atrocity affecting their nation during an atrocity experienced by another people in your name?
The Complexity of Remembrance
The complexity of mourning exists because of the reality that there is no consensus as to the implications of these developments. Actually, within US Jewish circles, this two-year period have seen the breakdown of a decades-long unity on Zionism itself.
The origins of a Zionist consensus among American Jewry dates back to writings from 1915 by the lawyer who would later become supreme court justice Louis D. Brandeis titled “The Jewish Problem; Addressing the Challenge”. Yet the unity truly solidified subsequent to the 1967 conflict that year. Previously, US Jewish communities maintained a fragile but stable coexistence between groups which maintained a range of views about the need for Israel – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.
Background Information
That coexistence continued during the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of socialist Jewish movements, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, within the critical American Council for Judaism and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor at JTS, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance rather than political, and he did not permit performance of Israel's anthem, the Israeli national anthem, during seminary ceremonies in those years. Additionally, Zionist ideology the centerpiece of Modern Orthodoxy before that war. Different Jewish identity models remained present.
However following Israel defeated adjacent nations in that war during that period, occupying territories such as Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish perspective on Israel underwent significant transformation. Israel’s victory, coupled with enduring anxieties regarding repeated persecution, resulted in a growing belief regarding Israel's critical importance within Jewish identity, and created pride regarding its endurance. Discourse regarding the “miraculous” nature of the outcome and the freeing of territory assigned the Zionist project a religious, almost redemptive, significance. During that enthusiastic period, considerable previous uncertainty regarding Zionism vanished. In the early 1970s, Publication editor Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Zionism unites us all.”
The Unity and Its Boundaries
The unified position did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who typically thought a Jewish state should only emerge via conventional understanding of the messiah – but united Reform, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The most popular form of this agreement, later termed progressive Zionism, was founded on the conviction in Israel as a democratic and free – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Countless Jewish Americans considered the administration of Arab, Syria's and Egyptian lands post-1967 as provisional, believing that a resolution was forthcoming that would ensure a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the state.
Several cohorts of US Jews were thus brought up with pro-Israel ideology a fundamental aspect of their Jewish identity. The nation became a key component within religious instruction. Israeli national day turned into a celebration. National symbols adorned most synagogues. Youth programs integrated with national melodies and the study of the language, with visitors from Israel instructing American teenagers national traditions. Trips to the nation expanded and reached new heights through Birthright programs during that year, offering complimentary travel to the nation was offered to US Jewish youth. The state affected nearly every aspect of US Jewish life.
Evolving Situation
Interestingly, throughout these years post-1967, Jewish Americans grew skilled in religious diversity. Acceptance and discussion between Jewish denominations increased.
Yet concerning support for Israel – there existed diversity found its boundary. Individuals might align with a right-leaning advocate or a liberal advocate, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was a given, and criticizing that perspective categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – an “Un-Jew”, as one publication labeled it in a piece recently.
However currently, under the weight of the destruction of Gaza, starvation, dead and orphaned children and anger regarding the refusal of many fellow Jews who avoid admitting their involvement, that consensus has broken down. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer
