Mormon PR blunts Jews’ unease with Romney

Two groups that opposed former Massa­chusetts governor Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential run were evangelical Prot­estants and Jews. Many of the former believe that Mormons constitute a cult; the latter have long been offended by the Mormon practice of providing proxy baptisms for Jews who died during the Holocaust. Then there was Romney's 2008 campaign kickoff at Detroit's Henry Ford Museum.

"Why would an American presidential candidate choose to announce his candidacy at a museum dedicated to the memory of America's most notorious and influential anti-Semite?" Jewish lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz wrote in February 2007 in the Huffington Post. "I believe Mitt Romney owes the Jewish community, indeed all Ameri­cans who hate the sort of bigotry represented by Henry Ford, an explanation and an apology."

Fast-forward four years and it's clear that Jewish opposition to Romney has been neutralized, thanks in part to some skilled diplomacy on the part of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Church in 2009 quietly flew in Jewish leaders for all-expenses-paid tours of Mormon temples, the Brig­ham Young University campus, Temple Square and Welfare Square, the latter an impressive facility showing the church's worldwide charity work. Mor­mons emphasized the commonalities between one of the world's oldest religions and one of its youngest, plus showing that it shares biblical concerns about the poor.