A Breakdown of the Zionist Agreement Within American Jews: What Is Emerging Now.
It has been the horrific attack of 7 October 2023, which shook world Jewry more than any event following the creation of the state of Israel.
For Jews the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the Israeli government, it was a profound disgrace. The entire Zionist endeavor was founded on the assumption which held that Israel could stop such atrocities repeating.
A response seemed necessary. Yet the chosen course Israel pursued – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of numerous of civilians – represented a decision. And this choice made more difficult the way numerous US Jewish community members processed the attack that set it in motion, and presently makes difficult the community's commemoration of the day. How does one honor and reflect on an atrocity targeting their community in the midst of devastation experienced by other individuals attributed to their identity?
The Complexity of Mourning
The complexity of mourning exists because of the circumstance where there is no consensus regarding what any of this means. Indeed, within US Jewish circles, this two-year period have experienced the collapse of a half-century-old unity on Zionism itself.
The origins of pro-Israel unity across American Jewish populations can be traced to writings from 1915 authored by an attorney who would later become supreme court justice Justice Brandeis named “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement became firmly established after the six-day war that year. Before then, Jewish Americans housed a fragile but stable cohabitation between groups that had different opinions regarding the requirement of a Jewish state – Zionists, neutral parties and opponents.
Historical Context
Such cohabitation endured during the mid-twentieth century, through surviving aspects of socialist Jewish movements, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, among the opposing Jewish organization and other organizations. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance than political, and he prohibited singing the Israeli national anthem, the national song, at JTS ordinations in the early 1960s. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the centerpiece within modern Orthodox Judaism before the 1967 conflict. Different Jewish identity models existed alongside.
However following Israel defeated its neighbors during the 1967 conflict that year, occupying territories such as Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish connection with the nation evolved considerably. The triumphant outcome, combined with persistent concerns about another genocide, led to a growing belief about the nation's essential significance to the Jewish people, and created pride regarding its endurance. Rhetoric about the “miraculous” nature of the outcome and the reclaiming of land assigned Zionism a spiritual, almost redemptive, significance. In that triumphant era, much of the remaining ambivalence about Zionism disappeared. In the early 1970s, Publication editor the commentator declared: “We are all Zionists now.”
The Unity and Its Boundaries
The Zionist consensus did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who largely believed a Jewish state should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of redemption – however joined Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and nearly all non-affiliated Jews. The common interpretation of the consensus, what became known as progressive Zionism, was established on the conviction in Israel as a liberal and free – albeit ethnocentric – country. Many American Jews considered the control of Arab, Syria's and Egypt's territories following the war as provisional, assuming that a resolution would soon emerge that would ensure a Jewish majority in Israel proper and regional acceptance of the state.
Two generations of Jewish Americans grew up with support for Israel a fundamental aspect of their Jewish identity. The state transformed into a key component of Jewish education. Israeli national day evolved into a religious observance. Blue and white banners adorned many temples. Youth programs integrated with Israeli songs and the study of contemporary Hebrew, with Israelis visiting instructing US young people national traditions. Travel to Israel increased and reached new heights via educational trips during that year, providing no-cost visits to the country was provided to Jewish young adults. The nation influenced virtually all areas of the American Jewish experience.
Changing Dynamics
Ironically, throughout these years following the war, US Jewish communities became adept regarding denominational coexistence. Open-mindedness and dialogue between Jewish denominations expanded.
Except when it came to Zionism and Israel – that represented pluralism reached its limit. One could identify as a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, yet backing Israel as a majority-Jewish country remained unquestioned, and challenging that position positioned you outside the consensus – an “Un-Jew”, as a Jewish periodical termed it in an essay in 2021.
Yet presently, under the weight of the ruin in Gaza, food shortages, young victims and frustration regarding the refusal within Jewish communities who avoid admitting their complicity, that agreement has disintegrated. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer
