The Collapse of the Zionist Consensus Among US Jews: What Is Emerging Today.

It has been the horrific attack of October 7, 2023, an event that shook world Jewry like no other occurrence since the establishment of Israel as a nation.

Among Jewish people the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the state of Israel, it was a significant embarrassment. The entire Zionist project was founded on the belief that the Jewish state could stop things like this occurring in the future.

A response appeared unavoidable. However, the particular response Israel pursued – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of numerous non-combatants – was a choice. This particular approach made more difficult the way numerous Jewish Americans grappled with the October 7th events that triggered it, and currently challenges their remembrance of the anniversary. How does one grieve and remember a horrific event against your people while simultaneously a catastrophe experienced by another people in your name?

The Challenge of Mourning

The challenge surrounding remembrance exists because of the fact that there is no consensus as to the significance of these events. Indeed, within US Jewish circles, the recent twenty-four months have seen the disintegration of a decades-long agreement regarding Zionism.

The beginnings of a Zionist consensus across American Jewish populations can be traced to an early twentieth-century publication by the lawyer who would later become high court jurist Louis D. Brandeis named “The Jewish Question; Addressing the Challenge”. However, the agreement really takes hold after the 1967 conflict that year. Before then, US Jewish communities housed a fragile but stable cohabitation across various segments that had a range of views about the need for a Jewish nation – pro-Israel advocates, non-Zionists and opponents.

Historical Context

This parallel existence persisted through the mid-twentieth century, within remaining elements of Jewish socialism, in the non-Zionist Jewish communal organization, within the critical religious group and similar institutions. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the head at JTS, the Zionist movement was more spiritual than political, and he prohibited performance of Israel's anthem, the Israeli national anthem, at JTS ordinations in those years. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the main element for contemporary Orthodox communities prior to the 1967 conflict. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.

But after Israel overcame its neighbors in the six-day war in 1967, seizing land including the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish perspective on the nation evolved considerably. Israel’s victory, along with persistent concerns of a “second Holocaust”, led to a growing belief regarding Israel's critical importance for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Language regarding the “miraculous” aspect of the outcome and the “liberation” of areas assigned the movement a religious, even messianic, importance. In those heady years, a significant portion of the remaining ambivalence about Zionism disappeared. During the seventies, Writer the commentator stated: “Everyone supports Zionism today.”

The Agreement and Restrictions

The Zionist consensus excluded the ultra-Orthodox – who generally maintained a Jewish state should only be established by a traditional rendering of the Messiah – but united Reform Judaism, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all secular Jews. The common interpretation of the consensus, what became known as progressive Zionism, was based on a belief about the nation as a democratic and free – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews saw the occupation of local, Syria's and Egyptian lands following the war as provisional, thinking that a resolution was imminent that would ensure a Jewish majority in Israel proper and Middle Eastern approval of the state.

Two generations of American Jews were thus brought up with Zionism a core part of their Jewish identity. The nation became a central part of Jewish education. Yom Ha'atzmaut turned into a celebration. Israeli flags adorned many temples. Seasonal activities were permeated with national melodies and the study of the language, with visitors from Israel and teaching American teenagers Israeli culture. Trips to the nation expanded and achieved record numbers via educational trips in 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation was provided to US Jewish youth. Israel permeated nearly every aspect of Jewish American identity.

Changing Dynamics

Ironically, throughout these years following the war, Jewish Americans became adept in religious diversity. Open-mindedness and dialogue among different Jewish movements increased.

Yet concerning support for Israel – that’s where tolerance ended. You could be a right-leaning advocate or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a majority-Jewish country remained unquestioned, and questioning that narrative placed you outside the consensus – outside the community, as a Jewish periodical termed it in an essay recently.

Yet presently, amid of the devastation within Gaza, famine, child casualties and outrage about the rejection by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their complicity, that consensus has collapsed. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer