The Dissolution of the Zionist Agreement Within American Jewish Community: What's Emerging Today.
It has been the horrific attack of the events of October 7th, which profoundly impacted world Jewry unlike anything else since the creation of the Jewish state.
Among Jewish people the event proved shocking. For Israel as a nation, it was a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist project was founded on the presumption that the Jewish state would ensure against things like this repeating.
Some form of retaliation seemed necessary. But the response undertaken by Israel – the comprehensive devastation of Gaza, the casualties of numerous non-combatants – was a choice. This particular approach made more difficult the perspective of many US Jewish community members processed the attack that precipitated the response, and it now complicates the community's commemoration of that date. How does one honor and reflect on a tragedy against your people in the midst of a catastrophe done to a different population attributed to their identity?
The Complexity of Remembrance
The complexity in grieving lies in the fact that little unity prevails regarding the implications of these developments. Indeed, for the American Jewish community, the last two years have seen the collapse of a half-century-old agreement regarding Zionism.
The origins of a Zionist consensus within US Jewish communities can be traced to a 1915 essay written by a legal scholar subsequently appointed Supreme Court judge Justice Brandeis called “The Jewish Problem; Finding Solutions”. But the consensus became firmly established after the Six-Day War in 1967. Earlier, US Jewish communities contained a vulnerable but enduring cohabitation between groups holding a range of views regarding the requirement for a Jewish nation – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.
Historical Context
Such cohabitation endured throughout the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, within the neutral Jewish communal organization, within the critical American Council for Judaism and similar institutions. For Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor at JTS, the Zionist movement was primarily theological rather than political, and he prohibited performance of the Israeli national anthem, the Israeli national anthem, at religious school events during that period. Additionally, support for Israel the centerpiece of Modern Orthodoxy until after the 1967 conflict. Jewish identitarian alternatives existed alongside.
But after Israel overcame neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict that year, seizing land such as the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish connection with the nation underwent significant transformation. The triumphant outcome, combined with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, led to a developing perspective regarding Israel's essential significance for Jewish communities, and created pride in its resilience. Language regarding the extraordinary quality of the success and the “liberation” of land provided the movement a theological, potentially salvific, meaning. In that triumphant era, a significant portion of previous uncertainty toward Israel vanished. During the seventies, Publication editor Podhoretz stated: “We are all Zionists now.”
The Agreement and Its Limits
The pro-Israel agreement did not include Haredi Jews – who typically thought a Jewish state should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of the Messiah – but united Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of unaffiliated individuals. The most popular form of this agreement, identified as progressive Zionism, was founded on the idea regarding Israel as a democratic and democratic – though Jewish-centered – country. Numerous US Jews viewed the control of Arab, Syrian and Egyptian lands following the war as provisional, thinking that a resolution would soon emerge that would guarantee Jewish demographic dominance in pre-1967 Israel and regional acceptance of Israel.
Several cohorts of US Jews grew up with Zionism a fundamental aspect of their Jewish identity. Israel became a central part within religious instruction. Israel’s Independence Day turned into a celebration. National symbols were displayed in most synagogues. Summer camps became infused with Hebrew music and learning of the language, with visitors from Israel educating American teenagers Israeli culture. Trips to the nation expanded and peaked through Birthright programs by 1999, when a free trip to the nation was provided to US Jewish youth. The state affected virtually all areas of Jewish American identity.
Evolving Situation
Interestingly, in these decades following the war, US Jewish communities became adept regarding denominational coexistence. Acceptance and discussion across various Jewish groups grew.
Except when it came to Zionism and Israel – that represented tolerance ended. You could be a rightwing Zionist or a progressive supporter, yet backing Israel as a Jewish homeland remained unquestioned, and challenging that narrative positioned you beyond accepted boundaries – an “Un-Jew”, as a Jewish periodical labeled it in an essay recently.
However currently, amid of the destruction within Gaza, food shortages, dead and orphaned children and outrage over the denial of many fellow Jews who refuse to recognize their responsibility, that unity has broken down. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer
