A Breakdown of a Pro-Israel Consensus Among American Jewish Community: What's Emerging Today.
Two years have passed since the horrific attack of October 7, 2023, which deeply affected global Jewish populations unlike anything else following the establishment of the Jewish state.
Within Jewish communities it was shocking. For the state of Israel, it was a profound disgrace. The whole Zionist endeavor rested on the belief that Israel would ensure against such atrocities occurring in the future.
A response was inevitable. However, the particular response undertaken by Israel – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the casualties of tens of thousands of civilians – represented a decision. This selected path complicated the way numerous American Jews processed the initial assault that precipitated the response, and it now complicates their observance of the anniversary. In what way can people honor and reflect on a horrific event targeting their community in the midst of a catastrophe being inflicted upon another people in your name?
The Complexity of Mourning
The complexity of mourning stems from the reality that no agreement exists regarding the significance of these events. Indeed, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the breakdown of a half-century-old agreement regarding Zionism.
The beginnings of pro-Israel unity across American Jewish populations dates back to an early twentieth-century publication written by a legal scholar subsequently appointed Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis named “The Jewish Question; Finding Solutions”. But the consensus became firmly established after the 1967 conflict during 1967. Previously, US Jewish communities contained a vulnerable but enduring coexistence across various segments which maintained different opinions regarding the need for Israel – pro-Israel advocates, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.
Background Information
Such cohabitation endured during the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of Jewish socialism, within the neutral Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist religious group and similar institutions. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the head at JTS, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he forbade performance of Israel's anthem, Hatikvah, during seminary ceremonies in those years. Nor were Zionism and pro-Israelism the main element within modern Orthodox Judaism until after the 1967 conflict. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.
Yet after Israel routed adjacent nations in that war during that period, seizing land including Palestinian territories, Gaza, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish connection with Israel underwent significant transformation. The military success, combined with enduring anxieties regarding repeated persecution, produced an increasing conviction in the country’s essential significance for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Discourse concerning the extraordinary nature of the victory and the freeing of territory provided the movement a theological, potentially salvific, importance. In that triumphant era, considerable existing hesitation toward Israel vanished. During the seventies, Publication editor the commentator declared: “We are all Zionists now.”
The Consensus and Its Boundaries
The unified position excluded Haredi Jews – who typically thought Israel should only be established through traditional interpretation of the messiah – however joined Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all unaffiliated individuals. The predominant version of the consensus, later termed liberal Zionism, was based on the conviction about the nation as a democratic and democratic – though Jewish-centered – state. Numerous US Jews saw the administration of Arab, Syria's and Egypt's territories after 1967 as not permanent, believing that a resolution was forthcoming that would maintain Jewish demographic dominance in Israel proper and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.
Several cohorts of Jewish Americans were thus brought up with pro-Israel ideology a fundamental aspect of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a key component in Jewish learning. Israeli national day turned into a celebration. National symbols adorned most synagogues. Summer camps were permeated with Hebrew music and the study of the language, with Israelis visiting and teaching American youth Israeli culture. Trips to the nation grew and peaked through Birthright programs in 1999, offering complimentary travel to Israel became available to young American Jews. The nation influenced nearly every aspect of the American Jewish experience.
Shifting Landscape
Ironically, during this period after 1967, Jewish Americans grew skilled regarding denominational coexistence. Acceptance and discussion between Jewish denominations increased.
However regarding the Israeli situation – that represented pluralism reached its limit. One could identify as a conservative supporter or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a Jewish homeland was a given, and criticizing that narrative placed you outside the consensus – an “Un-Jew”, as a Jewish periodical termed it in an essay in 2021.
However currently, amid of the destruction of Gaza, food shortages, child casualties and frustration over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their involvement, that agreement has collapsed. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer
