One Year After October 7, American Jewry Has Been “Broken … in Half”

“I think this has thrown mainstream Jewish institutions in America into a tailspin.” Shaul Magid, who teaches modern Judaism at Harvard Divinity School, was describing October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and killed roughly 1,200 people, most of whom were Israeli civilians, and the tumultuous and tragic year that followed.

The year that followed has featured a war, carried out by Israel against Hamas in Gaza, that has seen over 40,000 Palestinians killed (some say this is a conservative estimate). It has featured massive rallies to stand with Israel and protests across the country to stop the war, both organized by Jews.

“The real crisis is in the liberal Zionist consensus that was operative since the 1970s,” Magid said. What October 7 and the war that followed did, Magid says, has been to carve out the liberal Zionist middle. The worldview of that middle has been built around certain principles: that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state; that the occupation is wrong; that there should be a two-state solution; that right-wing extremists in Israel are a minority, albeit one in power. But October 7 and the war forced American Jews in the liberal Zionist consensus to pick a side: Are you in favor of the war or not? If you’re in favor of a war that’s killed thousands of children, Magid asked, where’s the liberal part of “liberal Zionism”?

He answered his own question: “It has broken American Jewry in half.”

The sense of division is backed by polling. According to the latest polling by Pew on the issue, roughly a third of American Jews think that the Israeli response has been appropriate. Somewhere between a quarter and a third think it’s gone too far; another quarter, not far enough. Thirteen percent aren’t sure what to think.