I’m an exmo in my 40’s and I have married a beautiful Jewish woman a few years ago. Since I’ve been married, my wife and I have counted 8 couples who are in our local synagogue who are also exmo-married-to-Jew. Is that weird? The congregation at the synagogue is not that big – perhaps as big as a mormon ward back in the 80’s. It just seems weird that there is only ONE other couple we know of in that group who are Jewish-married-to-prodastant/catholic/anything other than exmormon. It is very odd to me that exmormon spouses are married to Jews more than any other demomination.

I tell my wife that the Jews must take pity on us and that to marry a mormon is a way of doing Tzedakah.

BTW - we are both athiests.

Of course this is my own observation from my limited part of the world (San Francisco North bay area)…has anyone else noticed a similar trend?

praydude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I tell my wife that the Jews must take pity on us
> and that to marry a mormon is a way of doing
> Tzedakah.

I am truly laughing out loud. This is one of the funniest things I've ever read on RfM.

In my area, it's mostly (in no particular order) Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist intermarriages with Jews. I would say it must be geographical, except that I would expect virtually the same Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist percentages to be true in the Bay Area.

I have no idea.

But because of your post I will ALWAYS remember that marrying a mormon [would an exmo like you count?] may VERY possibly be an important form of doing tzedakah.

[tzedakah: the obligation to create justice, fairness, and righteousness. Although this word is commonly (and erroneously) translated into English as "charity" or philanthropy, "giving charity" is only one, very limited, expression of tzedakah. Mostly, tzedakah comes under the heading of "tikkun olam," which means: "repairing the world." Tzedakah (in all of its aspects) and tikkun olam are obligations of Jews, are both are things that virtually every Jew accepts personal responsibility for.]

Thank you, praydude! I will remember this post always.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2011 11:33PM by tevai.

What is ironic to me is that as a BIC mormon I was raised believing that Jews were close cousins of the LDS and that there were many similarities between them and us. They had the Holocaust and we had Han’s Mill and so on.

What I can say now is that mormons really have no idea what the Jews are like or what they are about. For example, the culture of questioning and arguing was new to me. Mormons don’t do either very well, especially since they tend to transform arguments into personal attacks. It is really mind-opening to live within a Jewish community and to learn to argue and question everything without getting personal with it.
I think that most mormons would benefit greatly by attending a Shabbat service. Just one. Most mormons (and exmos like me) would wonder why they thought they were so similar.
Obviously, I’m an admirer of the Jews even though I don’t believe in Hashem. They are open, caring, and welcoming to exmos (and everyone else for that matter).

I am praydude's Jewish wife. I was also floored by how little Mormons know about Jews. We were visited by an elderly missionary couple who said they felt we were so close because I was Jewish--practically related--yet they spoke words that don't exist in the Hebrew language and cited "biblical" instances that don't correllate with Torah. I have a theory that the reason so many exmos date and perhaps marry Jews is because we are largely the only acceptable religious group to marry. They certainly can't marry into the "red whore" that is the Catholic church or into any form of protestantism, which they have measured themselves against since Joe Smith put eye to stone.

praydude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am praydude's Jewish wife. I was also floored
> by how little Mormons know about Jews. We were
> visited by an elderly missionary couple who said
> they felt we were so close because I was
> Jewish--practically related--yet they spoke words
> that don't exist in the Hebrew language and cited
> "biblical" instances that don't correllate with
> Torah. I have a theory that the reason so many
> exmos date and perhaps marry Jews is because we
> are largely the only acceptable religious group to
> marry. They certainly can't marry into the "red
> whore" that is the Catholic church or into any
> form of protestantism, which they have measured
> themselves against since Joe Smith put eye to
> stone.

This is an important (to me, anyway), perceptive observation, praydude's wife! I will remember this and I thank you.

I didn't know that they were "creating 'new Torah'," either. I guess it's obvious that they don't look up their "biblical" references in the actual Bible??? Since Jews so reflexively look things up and check on them (secular things and religious things both), this never occurred to me.

Many thanks for this post. You have opened my mind in brand new directions and I appreciate it.

Wow.

Maybe Jews better represent the teachings of Jesus than do the adopted Mormon "grafted" followers of Jesus who have gone back to Old Testament smackdown punishments like shunning.

Remember, Mormons had the belief that one's blood must be spilled to atone for your own sin of murder, according to early Mormon prophets. That repudiates the Atonement and brings Mormons in line as Space Brother Jews.

Anagrammy

before I baptised her. She never really bought into the religion though and when I left she was pissed that I had dragged her through all that mormon stuff. Her family is not really practicing Jews, but they identify with that culture, so now my wife has returned to a kind of laisse-faire attitude.

The one's here are usually hispanic and they love their men. They treat them better than they should be and love to have sex a lot. Wah.

I think major facets of the mindset are similar.

I was raised Catholic and before I converted, I dated a string of Jewish girls in college. Just got on far better with them than with any other non-Catholic girls, I guess.

The Jews have to be MAJORLY pissed that Mormons call them "Gentiles."

I think Joe Smith kinda wanted to outdo the Jews with his own brand of Jewishness. But in his delusion, he ended up insulting the Jews more than anything! The invention of Reformed Egyptian is nothing more than a stab in the back to Jews.

~VOW