AJC Mourns Passing of LDS President Thomas Monson

News provided by

Jan 03, 2018, 04:56 ET

NEW YORK, Jan. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC stands with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in mourning the passing of Thomas Monson, who served as LDS President since 2008. He was 90.

"Under Thomas Monson's leadership, AJC and the LDS Church deepened a mutual relationship, focusing on complex religious liberty issues, humanitarian disaster relief, sustaining religious identity, support for the State of Israel, and other shared concerns," said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations. "Significantly, President Monson led the church in renewing in 2012 its commitment to prevent posthumous proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims and other well-known Jews."

The relationship with the LDS Church, a fast-growing faith group, has been a priority for AJC in its pioneering interreligious work. High-level national AJC delegations visited LDS Church headquarters in August 2012 and November 2013, and in February 2014, LDS apostles visited AJC's global headquarters in New York.

In addition, several AJC regional delegations visited with key LDS figures in Salt Lake City, and AJC has initiated LDS-Jewish dialogues in multiple cities across the United States. Senior LDS delegations have met with AJC leadership in Jerusalem, as well.

"President Monson played a key role in deepening Jewish-Mormon relations," said Marans. He had major success in the supervision and expansion of the Church's welfare program, and its humanitarian work and developmental projects around the world to help those in need, regardless of faith.

Monson had said, "I'm a great believer that by working together we eliminate the weakness of one standing alone and substitute the strength of many standing together."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee