Re: New Member

<x-charset iso-8859-1>For those interested in a detailed account on the past controversy re.
posthumous Mormon baptism of Jews who were not direct Mormon ancestors, Gary
Mokotoff very recently mentioned a link to the "on-line reprint" of his
article "The
Mormon/Jewish Controversy: What Really Happened", which begins:

"On May 3, 1995, a landmark agreement was signed by representatives of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and members of the
Jewish community that ended the practice of Mormons posthumously baptizing
Jews who were not direct ancestors of Mormons."

The article details the 1995 agreement. It included several measures
starting with the removal from the "International Genealogical Index (IGI)
of the names of all known posthumously baptized Jewish Holocaust victims who
were not direct ancestors of living members of the Church--some 360,000
entries. The IGI includes entries for more than 200 million deceased persons
baptized as Mormons."

Gary Mokotoff's article ends:

"The January meeting was attended by Senator Hatch, Elder Brough, Michel and
Herbert Kronish, a lawyer active in UJA-Federation affairs. The meeting was
very cordial, not adversarial but more in the spirit of two friends trying
to resolve a mutual problem. Elder Brough explained to Michel what had
happened, why it happened and that the Church was upset it had offended
people, which was not the intent. Michel indicated that the Mormon Church
had always shown friendship to the Jewish people, was a supporter of Israel
and was sympathetic to the impact on Jews of the Holocaust tragedy. Brough
presented a number of alternatives which Michel said he would bring back to
the members of the American Gathering board of directors. When the board
met, it was unanimously decided that the names should be removed from the
IGI and provisions made to be certain that any future submissions would be
expunged.

"On May 3, 1995, in New York, the LDS Church and representatives of the
Jewish community signed the agreement described at the beginning of this
article. On May 15, 1995, former president of Israel, Yitzhak Navon, having
received word of the signing of the agreement, faxed a four-word message to
me as president of the Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies:

"Shalom. Bravo! Well done!"

The article was included in the Summer 1995 issue of AVOTAYNU and sheds
ample light on details of the controversy. I recommend those interested to
read the full version of the article on the three year incident. It is found
at

http://www.avotaynu.com/mormon.htm

Carlos Glikson
Buenos Aires, Argentina


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Received on 2003-05-01 14:22:16