HOWLETT HAPPENINGS: Two Impressive Presentations

In September we were able to attend two different presentations that were related and very interesting.

The first one was a fireside with an active LDS man named Mark Paredes, who is Black/Hispanic, speaks seven different languages fluently and is conversant in others. He is currently the director of the Los Angeles Office of the Zionists Organization of America to handle relationships between the Jews and other churches.

Having served in several different capacities in the U.S., Israel and Russia, he has a vast list of experiences. His passion is to learn about and speak on Mormons and Jews and his talk that night was entitled "Mormons and Jews – A Zion Relationship".
Brother Paredes contrasted the relationships between the Jews and various Christian religions by saying, “The Jews feel that Christians are their kin, but Mormons are their brothers.” Mormons are unique among Christians in that they show no evidence of Anti-Semitism. Furthermore, both the Jews and the Mormons have been persecuted by the same people.
Joseph Smith knew how closely related our peoples are. He studied Hebrew and taught it in the School of the Prophets. The first editions of two LDS newspapers focused on the Restoration of the Children of Israel to the Holy Land. Orson Hyde was commissioned to go to Jerusalem in 1841 and dedicate the land for the gathering of the Jews – not their conversion. One hour before the martyrdom Joseph Smith was reading Josephus. That is a History of the Jews written by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
In the mountain west of the U.S. the Jewish community was always welcomed. The Mormons gave them freedom in Utah, and even gave them land for their worship centers. The first two Jewish governors were from Idaho and Utah.
Temples have always been important to our Church, as they were in ancient Israel. All of the Jewish temples had “Holiness to the Lord – The House of the Lord” inscribed on them.

All of our Mormon temples also have that inscription on them today. The baptismal fonts in our temples are built on the backs of twelve oxen representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
Brother Paredes said that there are 600,000 Jews in Los Angeles, and the Jewish Family History Archives are located in one of our LDS Family History Centers. The Mormons were the first Christians allowed to hold a celebration in their big Jewish Center.
A Jewish Rabbi, who was on an interfaith committee for 50 years, said that the only time he felt true honesty from a Christian was with the Mormon committee members.
Mark Paredes reminded us that now is not the time to proselyte the Jews, only be their friends. Now is the day of the Gentile. The Jews will listen when their time comes again. For now, it is important that the Jews remain as they are.

This is the tomato plant that Mr. Schaefer planted for the Americans who work in his building. We've all harvested from it for our salads, etc. Look at the size of it!

Miracle of the BYU Jerusalem Center
The second presentation we want to tell you about was given at an evening here that sister missionaries attend called “Sister’s Night Out”. Sister Kaye Hansen, who is currently serving a mission here with the YSA Outreach program, gave us a presentation called “The Miracle of the Jerusalem Center”. She was associate director of the BYU Jerusalem Center from 1996-1998, so she learned all about the miracle of its coming into being.
In 1968 BYU started a small center in rented halls in Jerusalem and it continued to grow until in 1979 President Spencer W. Kimball came to Jerusalem to choose from seven selected sites where the new BYU Jerusalem Center should be built. After viewing all the six other sites he came to the last site on the top of a mountain overlooking Jerusalem. He looked at it, then walked down the hill a bit towards Jerusalem, and said this is the location where we will build it. He had gone beyond the piece of land available for sale and chosen a place that was not for sale. But all found themselves agreeing to do it.
This site belonged to the state of Israel, but a Jordanian family still claimed it was theirs, and it was not for sale. The church hired an Israeli lawyer and a Palestinian lawyer who deliberated and pushed for it. After 18 months the LDS Church was able to get a 99 year lease with option to renew it for 99 years. President Faust later said, “It is enough.” In order to get the Jordanian family to agree, the Church promised 10 full scholarships (about 2 a year) to young Palestinian scholars to attend BYU Provo. These students were very high quality young people and thoroughly loved the experience.
The design was to build 7 floors cascading down the mountainside, with each floor being on solid rock foundations. Every room in the center would have large windows facing Jerusalem with the largest meeting hall at the top having a full wall of windows. They also used several kinds of Jerusalem stone and very choice types of wood in the classrooms and unique dorm rooms.

Though the Church had advertized this building in the papers and asked for any opposing people to come forth and state their refusals, only one did so and was quickly appeased. But in 1984 when the bulldozers began work on the mountainside all the community seemed to be up in arms. There were picketers chanting for Mormons to go home every day at the building site marching in the scorching heat of the day, and the LDS people offered water to the picketers.
Still much opposition continued with bumper stickers telling Mormons to leave, stamps on their money, and even when Jeffrey R. Holland came to the airport to take care of business there, people were chanting, “Go home Jeff.” Many Israeli government officials tried to find loop holes in the legal papers of the lease, but found none. President Hunter sent a letter of promise that there would be no proselyting by anyone at the BYU Center, but most Jews did not believe him. They didn’t want to lose any more of their people.
Finally some Jewish leaders became friends. The Jewish contractor was warned by his friends that if he built this center he’d never build another thing in Israel. But he continued, even claiming to have unique ideas come to his mind in the construction, not knowing he was being inspired. He did so well that he has now built several fine buildings for the Israeli government.
After it was completed, they brought the mayor of Jerusalem to the center for a tour. He walked through the whole center very stone faced, not saying a thing, then at the end he turned to the leaders and said, “You have taken the most beautiful property in Jerusalem and made it magnificent!”
There were many more little miracles that happened which we don’t have room to write about, but the Lord wanted this built and He made things transpire which allowed this to come about. We are blessed with this center which helps create a greater bond between Mormons and Jews.