Back to Mormon Quotes Index

"The Lamanites, now a down-trodden people, are a remnant of the house of Israel. The curse of God has followed them as it has done the Jews, though the Jews have not been darkened in their skin as have the Lamanites."

- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, v. 22, p. 173

"Here let me say again, according to the Book of Mormon, many of those great islands that are found in the Indian Ocean, also in the great Pacific Sea, have been planted with colonies of Israelites. Do they not resemble each other? Go to the Sandwich Islands, to the South Sea Islands, to Japan--go to the various islands of the Pacific Ocean, and you find a general resemblance in the characters and countenances of the people. Who are they? According to the Book of Mormon, Israelites were scattered forth from time to time, and colonies planted on these islands of the ocean"

- Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, v. 14, p. 333

“God is calling to the Jews. He invites them into the fold of Christ. He wants them to come and take their place in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Kingdom of God which ‘shall stand forever.'(Dan. 2:44)”

- Apostle LeGrand Richards, Israel! Do You Know?, 1954, p. 209

“You [Jews] have been driven, robbed, and ravished – so have we. You have been persecuted, mistreated, misunderstood – so have we. Why? We were driven from our homes to desolation beyond the boundaries of the United States. You, too, have been driven. Why?
“What a power we could be in the world if we [Mormons and Jews] were united... the complete accomplishment of our mutual and heaven-assigned responsibilities involves our becoming united (as the descendants of Joseph) with the descendants of Judah (the Jewish people) in the fulfillment of the promises given by the Lord to Abraham and renewed upon the heads of Isaac and Jacob, that through them and their seed all nations of the earth would be blessed.”

- Apostle LeGrand Richards, “The Mormons and the Jewish People,” pamphlet, n.d., p. 1

“This predicted gathering has three phases: the gathering of Israel to the land of Zion, the American hemisphere; the return of the Ten Tribes from the north countries; and the reestablishment of the Jews in Palestine which has been long ago predicted by the prophets.”

- Prophet Ezra Taft Benson, “Speaking Today: ‘A message to Judah from Joseph,'” Ensign, December 1976, p. 70

“My tribe, the tribe of Judah, is so fraught with internal disorder that I merely decided to walk across the street and live with my in-laws – the tribe of Joseph. Mormonism is a continuation of Judaism; all Jews are Israelites, but not all Israelites are Jews. Mormons are Israelites, too.”

- Harry Howard, Mormon orthodox Jew, “Jew or Mormon,” Time, November 16, 1959, p. 60