This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It could have happened. Again. But this time the name stirred up a frenzy, and the crisis was averted. Fast.
Simon Wiesenthal, the renowned Nazi hunter and Holocaust survivor who died last year in Vienna at 96, appeared about a week ago in the online International Genealogical Index (IGI), the LDS Church's mammoth database of names - all of which are potential fodder for posthumous baptisms.
Helen Radkey, a Salt Lake City researcher, found the name on the list, which anyone (LDS Church member or not) can access and add to. She immediately alerted The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles.
"We are astounded and dismayed," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's founder and dean, in a written statement. Wiesenthal "proudly lived as a Jew, died as a Jew and demanded justice for the millions of the victims of the Holocaust. . . . It is sacrilegious for the Mormon faith to desecrate his memory by suggesting that Jews on their own are not worthy enough to receive God's eternal blessing."
In a posthumous or proxy baptism, a living Mormon is baptized by full immersion in water in the name of a deceased individual. Such baptism is essential for eternal salvation, the LDS Church teaches, but it takes effect only if the deceased accepts the ritual in the afterlife.
In 1995, several Jewish groups became incensed by the practice when it was discovered that Holocaust victims were among those being baptized by proxy. They drew parallels to medieval crusades to baptize them by force. Not wishing to offend, the LDS Church removed 400,000 names and data of Holocaust victims and gave the information to various Jewish organizations, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington D.C., the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
But thousands of the deleted names somehow kept reappearing on the list, prompting more talks between the LDS Church and Jewish representatives, including Ernest Michel, chairman of the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors. In 2002, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton met with Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch to discuss the problem, although neither would discuss it publicly.
In April 2005, the LDS Church reaffirmed its 1995 agreement to discontinue vicarious baptisms for most Jewish names as well as remove them from the IGI database - unless they are direct ancestors of current Mormons.
In his Sunday statement, Hier, from the Wiesenthal Center, called for the immediate removal of Wiesenthal's name, and the names of all other Holocaust victims.
Catching all the names, amid the millions entered from personal computers across the globe, is no easy task. But Wiesenthal's name - that one is definitely gone.
Bruce Olsen, press secretary to The First Presidency, issued a statement Monday evening in which he confirmed Wiesenthal is off the list and that "no church ordinance was performed" for him. He also reiterated LDS Church policy "that members submit only names of their own ancestors for vicarious baptisms," and recognized the continued talks with heads of Holocaust organizations.
Reached in New York on Monday afternoon, Michel, of the Holocaust survivors group, did not want to speak about the Wiesenthal issue and would only confirm that discussions with the LDS Church are ongoing.