Zionism forms part of the Jewish religion, since the land of Israel and the Jewish religion cannot be separated; “Judaism” is both an ethnicity and a religion.
Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's opinion constitutes a minority view.
The land of Israel is the ancestral-homeland of the Jewish people, in which the Jews have unbroken presence since Biblical times:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographi...e_(region)
Video interview (3min, 18 secs) with Rabbi Yehudah Leib Posner recalling the view of the Lubavitch Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson - Lubavitch leader) on the [re]establishment of Jewish government in the land of Israel:
In the 1940's Rabbi Yehudah Leib Posner and his brother Zalman were students at "770" (770 Eastern Parkway - Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters.) Their father came in and asked the Rebbe a question ...
https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/livingto...ionism.htm
“Zionism” is simply Jewish nationalism, and if it were to be considered “wrong”, then the nationalism of other nations would also have to be wrong, for example Arab nationalism.
Modern Zionism is the desire to protect the re-establishment of Israel within its historic homeland, with Zion - Jerusalem, as its capital, while respecting its neighbours. What is now "East" Jerusalem (aka the “Old City”), was the capital of all the previous Jewish kingdoms of Judah and (united) kingdom of Israel. Modern Israel is Re-established within the Jewish ancestral-homeland - See for example the Jewish post-Biblical Hasmonean Kingdom. It included the: “West Bank”, Gaza, and Golan Heights. Capital (what is now “EAST”) Jerusalem / “Old City”; between 110 BCE / 754 BH and 63 BCE / 706 BH - Map:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...ingdom.jpg
Quote:‘Zion (Hebrew: צִיּוֹן Tsiyyon), [...] often used as a synonym for Jerusalem.[2][3] The word is first found in [the “Old Testament” Bible] 2 Samuel 5:7 which dates from c.630–540 [BCE] according to modern scholarship.
It commonly referred to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by [King] David and was named the City of David. The term Tzion [Zion] came to designate the area of Jerusalem where the [Jebusite] fortress stood, and later became a metonym for [King] Solomon’s Temple, [and] the city of Jerusalem [...]’.
Footnotes:
2. Longman, Tremper; Enns, Peter (2008). Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. InterVarsity Press. p. 936. ISBN 978-0-8308-1783-2.
3. Anderson, Arnold Albert (1981). The book of Psalms. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-551-00846-5.
Extract source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion
Zionism can be traced to the first Exiles of Jewish people (“Jew”=citizen of “Judah” - Judaism is an ethnicity as well as a religion) caused by foreign invasion and occupation, as shown from the extract from Psalm 137 below.
Yet the Jewish people have also had an unbroken presence in their ancestral-homeland of Israel despite exiles of many of its people; an unbroken presence dating from Biblical times (first source above):
Quote:Psalm 137, verses 1 to 6:
‘1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, we also wept when we remembered Zion.
2. On willows in its midst we hung our harps.
3. For there our captors asked us for words of song and our tormentors [asked of us] mirth, “Sing for us of the song of Zion.”
4. “How shall we sing the song of the Lord on foreign soil?”
5. If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill].
6. May my tongue cling to my palate, if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy. [...]’.
Translation extract source:
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/...er-137.htm
