Pence is referencing a letter John Adams wrote in 1820, where he hoped the Jews would return to Judah one day. The founders were for religious equality but they all opposed foreign nation building. There is no evidence they “championed” Zionism, which emerged politically in 1897.

There is also a letter that Washington wrote in 1790 to a synagogue supporting religious freedom. That’s really it, though. There were no Jewish founders & barely any Jewish settlers. The founders were busy building their own nation. Zionism just wasn’t in their radar.