The Savior of Mankind
Hear, O Israel. Here is thy Moshiah!
Evolutionary religion is the quest for truth.
Revelatory religion IS that truth.
PLEASE PRAY FOR ISRAEL! SHE IS SOON TO BE BESEIGED BY THE COUNTRIES AROUND HER... REMEMBER...
If Romney wins: Five things every Jew should know about Mormonism
October 19, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a campaign rally in Westerville, Ohio, on Sept. 26. Photo by REUTERS/Brian Snyder
1. Devout Mormons can be found all across the political spectrum.
The Mormon Church doesn’t endorse candidates or political parties, and although most American Mormons are Republicans, a Mormon Democrat has served as the Senate Majority Leader for the last five years. Owing to our history of persecution and emphasis on self-reliance, there is also a noteworthy group of Mormons with libertarian sympathies who do not easily identify with either party.
Mormons can be found on all sides of most issues. On immigration, for example, many Mormons tend to be more liberal than other Republicans (or Democrats, for that matter). Many of us have served missions abroad, and tend not to be too judgmental of people who come here seeking a better life. Although Mormons generally agree on many important moral issues (see below), there is no consensus on economics and the proper role of government. We all agree, for example, that we have an obligation to help the poor. However, the extent to which government should help meet their needs by taxing others is a point of contention among followers of most faiths, including ours.
2. Mormonism is part of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) bears the name of the Christian Savior, we believe in the God of Israel, we accept the Hebrew Bible and New Testament as Scripture, we worship in chapels and temples, and we consider ourselves to be covenant Israelites. Mormons follow the Ten Commandments and are Noahides. In addition, the Abrahamic Covenant is central to our faith. Like Jews, the family is central to our faith, and our idea of heaven is to live with our spouses and families for eternity.
3. A Mormon president would not take orders from Salt Lake City.
If Mitt Romney wins, he’ll undoubtedly have the same arrangement with top church leaders that other Mormons have with local leaders: They don’t tell us how to do our jobs, and we don’t tell them how to run the church. Even Romney’s most intractable foes haven’t accused LDS church headquarters of drafting Romneycare in Massachusetts, and it’s safe to assume that church leaders aren’t behind Harry Reid’s shameful promotion of Las Vegas gambling interests in Washington. Mormons are used to looking to their leaders for spiritual advice, not professional guidance. While I would certainly expect Romney to consult with Mormon leaders as part of his general outreach efforts to faith communities (including Jewish leaders), I am confident that he will be his own man when it comes to formulating policies for the nation. I am also confident that Mormons will not be overrepresented in his administration, as Romney has a history of hiring capable people from all backgrounds to work for him.
4. On moral issues, Mormons are not extreme right-wingers.
A closer look shows the views of most Mormons on these issues to be much more nuanced. Let’s take abortion, for example. The LDS church is very much against it but does allow for possible exceptions in the case of rape, incest, a threat to the mother’s life or when the baby is not expected to survive childbirth. That’s pretty much Romney’s campaign’s abortion platform.
On gay issues, it is accurate to say that Mormons oppose state-sanctioned, same-sex marriage. However, it is both inaccurate and insulting to say that we are anti-gay. We can and do support many other issues that are important to gays. For example, former LDS Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced a Senate bill that would have added sexual orientation to the list of protected categories for hate crimes. Every Mormon I know is opposed to discrimination against gays in education, employment and housing. We also support rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, probate rights, etc., so long as the integrity of the traditional family is not affected. As for theology, the LDS church teaches that homosexuality is not sinful in and of itself, as long as one remains chaste.
Although Mormons tend to have more children than the national average, our church doesn’t take a position on birth control. In addition, the church takes no position on capital punishment, stem-cell research, evolution or global warming. As a result, faithful Mormons are advocates for positions on all sides of these issues.
5. Mormons are philo-Semites and pro-Israel.
One of our basic Articles of Faith affirms: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes.” In 1841, LDS Apostle Orson Hyde offered a prayer on the Mount of Olives dedicating the Land of Israel for the gathering of the Jews. Israel went on to receive at least 11 apostolic blessings before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. For more than five decades (1870s-1920s), the church seriously considered establishing a Mormon colony in Palestine. Today, Brigham Young University has a beautiful center on Mount Scopus with the best view of the Old City in Jerusalem.
In the United States, Mormon pioneers arrived in the Utah territory in 1847. The first Jews arrived two years later, in 1849. The first Jewish worship service was held in 1864 in Salt Lake City. Rosh Hashanah was celebrated in Temple Square (the city center) in 1865. Brigham Young donated his personal land for a Jewish cemetery in 1866. In 1903, church President Joseph F. Smith spoke at the ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone for the state’s first Orthodox synagogue, which was largely paid for by the church. The second and third Jewish governors in the country were elected in Idaho (1914) and Utah (1916), the two states with the highest percentage of Mormons. Salt Lake City had a Jewish mayor by 1932, more than four decades before New York City.
Most Mormons in this country are very pro-Israel, and Romney is no exception. He has a close, decades-long personal relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who looks likely to be elected to another term. If Romney is elected, Jews and Israelis can be assured that they will have a true friend in the White House.
Mark Paredes writes the Jews and Mormons blog for the Jewish Journal and is a member of the LDS church's Jewish Relations Committee for Southern California. Read the Jews and Mormons blog atjewishjournal.com.
A Mormon Girl Among Jews
At Sunday school, I learned about the Israelites and end-times. Then bar mitzvah season began.
By Joanna Brooks|August 8, 2012
Before I met any Jewish people, I learned about Jews in my Mormon Sunday school classes. But no one used the word “Jews.” Instead, it was always “Israel,” or “the tribes of Israel,” or “Israelites.” Or maybe even “Hebrews.”
During sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, I would trace the movements of the Israelites charted on the colored maps at the back of my scriptures. Perhaps the most important of these movements, I learned, was the exodus of a small family of Israelites led by a righteous man named Lehi away from the land of their ancestors and across the ocean to the Americas, where they grew and divided and clashed and became the civilizations of the Book of Mormon.
In Sunday school, I studied the colorful Arnold Friberg Book of Mormon illustrations that my teacher propped up on her knees as we all sat in our little semicircle of child-sized chairs. The Israelites in these pictures were tall, dark-haired, and heroically muscled. Their expertly crafted wooden ships parted the waters as they approached some unspecified American coastline. At the center of the painting stood Lehi, the white-bearded patriarch, looking toward the heavens in prayer as the rest of the traveling party strained to see land on the horizon; his wife, Sariah, clung to him and silently rested her head upon his shoulder, eyes closed.
After church, because our family kept the Sabbath, I was not allowed to watch secular television, only Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. Sunday afternoons, my sisters and brother and I would watch the Israelites—mostly tall and sculpted (Charlton Heston, John Derek) or lovely and lithe (Yvonne DeCarlo)—act and reenact their epic journey from slavery and across the sea and the deserts to freedom.
read the rest at
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/108421/a-mormon-girl-among-jews?all=1The Passover Haggadah
A brief overview of the book that serves as guide, script, and liturgy of the Passover seder.By Rabbi Louis Jacobs
Excerpted with permission from The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University
Press.Haggadah--"the telling"--[is] the book containing the passages dealing with the theme of the Exodus recited at the Passover seder. The reading of the Haggadah is based on the verse, "You shall tell your son on that day: it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:8).
Although the Talmud mentions some features of the "telling" by the father [or other leader] at the seder, no formal Haggadah was produced until the Middle Ages, when the current form was established in essence and became universally accepted.
The Haggadah now contains passages from early and late sources dealing with the Exodus, instructions for the conduct of the seder, Psalms, and other songs of praise, grace before and after meals, concluding in the Ashkenazic version with a number of table songs.
It has been estimated that no fewer than 2,000 different editions of the Haggadah have been published. No other Jewish sacred book has enjoyed such popularity. The Haggadah is, of course, a sacred book. Its theme, the delivery of the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage, is more than a celebration of freedom as such. It is a celebration of the freedom the people of Israel attained in order to become God's people and receive His Torah.
Yet even secular Jews enjoy the Passover Seder and read the Haggadah as the ancient manifesto of liberty for all. Very few secular Jews, however, have gone so far as to produce an edition of the Haggadah, like the notorious "Godless Haggadah," from which all the references to God and His deliverance have been removed.
Many Haggadot have been published with commentaries by outstanding scholars and many are richly illustrated. Illuminated manuscripts and early editions of the Haggadah are now highly prized collectors' items.
Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs (1920-2006) was a Masorti rabbi, the first leader of Masorti Judaism (also known as Conservative Judaism) in the United Kingdom, and a leading writer and thinker on Judaism.
Joseph Smith Papers website
Now access the new site at www.josephsmithpapers.org. This is a wonderful addition to the LDS online presence. The intent of this new site is to "compile, transcribe, annotate and publish all of the known papers of Joseph Smith, including his revelations, journals, sermons, correspondence, business documents and other papers written by him or by others under his direction".
The Prophet Joseph Smith's Presidential Platform
With the 2012 elections coming up next year, we'll hear a lot about presidential promises and political posturing. Here's the official platform of the Prophet Joseph Smith when he formally decided to be a presidential candidate on January 29, 1844. What did he hope to accomplish?
A central banking system owned by the government, with the mother bank at Washington and branch banks in the several states.
The annexation of Texas upon her application, and the extending of an invitation to Mexico and Canada to become parts of the USA.
The immediate occupation and settlement of the Oregon region.
The reduction of the National Congress, the House tw-thirds and the Senate one-half.
The freedom of the slaves through purchase by the Federal Government, the funds to be obtained by the sale of public lands.
A reform of the prison system, which would make the prisons workhouses and seminaries of learning.
The building by the government of a dam across the Mississippi River at Keokuk and the construction of locks to aid shipping around the rapids.
A reform of the strict military punishment for desertion in time of war.
A high tariff to protect young industries.
From: The Restored Church, William Edward Barrett
Read more:
A sourcebook for understanding Jewish life
Reprinted with additions. $10. Order today!
Jewish celebration in Ghetto
Archive photo - 18th Century
Get Ye Understanding...
In the beginning God didn't rest until He created man in His own image. In the end He won't rest until man creates in himself the likeness of God. Joseph Smith, Jr.__________________________
Marlena's websites:
http://www.jewishconvert-lds.com. Info re firesides, see and order books, ebooks, Judaica, links to Jewish sites, much more.
http://www.peopleofthebook-judaica.com - link to Israel Historical References. Eleven articles from Church scholars on Israel, Jewish migrations, Arab-Israeli conflict,etc.
http://www.peopleofthebook-judaica.com/historical.html.
http://berdichev1941.com
Order my novel- Historical fiction - Ukraine Holocaust story. My books are $10. I mail the items. To order, click on first website. All funds go toward republishing.
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Inc.
| Links |  |
Government Archives With Documents/Index On-Line
Government Source for genealogical data for Scotland http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm National Archives of the United Kingdom
European Websites http://www.compactmemory.de / Internet Archive of Jewish Periodicals (German) 1806 -1938
Holocaust Websites http://en.auschwitz.org.pl Auschwitz Database
Latin America Websites http://www.cemla.com/busqueda.html Center for Studies Latin American
Maps http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gnrlhome.html Library of Congress Map Library
Newspapers http://multiculturalcanada.ca/mcc_cjr Canadian Jewish Review
Sephardic Websites http://www.sephardicgen.com/ Sephardic Genealogy Resources
South African Websites http://chrysalis.its.uct.ac.za/CGI/cgi_Rootweb.exe South African Jewish Database-Kaplan Centre for Jewish Migration and Genealogy Studies
United States Websites http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/ American Jewish Archives (Cincinnati, OH)
Prepared by Jan Meisels Allen, Director, IAJGS on 7/02/09 for 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy Resource Room |
| Copyright 2000-2009, International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Inc.
Send comments and corrections to the Webmaster, Daniel Horowitz. |
Adventures With the Angels of Love
Perfect gift for teens, young adults
Missionary and Marlena at her fireside
Bound for Glory
A Restored Mahzor (Jewish prayer book)
My historical fiction novel of 1940's in Europe
Meet the two families - read their stories
Wailing Wall At Dusk
Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem
Belarus, Ukraine
Fireside in Kirkland - March '09
13 Uplifting Stories of LDS Converts
DVD - My Fireside March 2009
Map Of Israel
...and the remnant shall be gathered again...
Surprises in every section!
Stories, psalms, essays, more
Morning beauties
The Hasidim (Pious Ones)
Frederic Aranda
Angels are always in our midst...
Have you blessed another life today?