“The Learning of the Jews”: What Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience

This volume is about Latter-day Saints learning from Jews and the Jewish experience. This book is unique. It is not a traditional interfaith dialogue where the goal is to learn from each other. Rather, Latter-day Saints seek to give Jews the microphone, so to speak, and let them talk about themselves on their own terms. Only then do Latter-day Saint respond, and not with the goal of establishing areas of agreement or disagreement but as an opportunity to learn from Jews. This book turns to the wisdom of Jews and Judaism to inform, inspire, and enhance the lived religious experience of Latter-day Saints.

The Learning of the Jews brings together fifteen scholars, seven Jewish and eight Latter-day Saint, with a combined academic experience of over four hundred years. The volume is structured around seven major topics, two chapters on each topic. A Jewish scholar first discusses the topic broadly vis-à-vis Judaism, followed by a response from a Latter-day Saint scholar. The seven topics include scripture, authority, prayer, women and modernity, remembrance, particularity, and humor. The intention is that the reader will not only learn a great deal about Judaism and the Jewish experience while reading this volume but also use what they learn to enhance their own cultural and religious experience.

Praise for “The Learning of the Jews”:

• “This is a ground-breaking book that provides much needed knowledge on Judaism. Members of The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints, as well as Christians of other groups, and Jews as well, will greatly benefit from it. The book also serves as means of intellectual exchange and interaction based on good will between members of the two faiths: Jewish and Mormon. It points to elements that both communities share, and where they differ. The editors gathered a particularly strong group of scholars, and the book chapters offer brilliant and instructive analyses. I highly recommend the book.” — Yaakov Ariel, Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• “The Learning of the Jews is a landmark in Latter-day Saint embrace of modern Jewish scholarship. It represents an understanding that the knowledge and experience of the Jewish people is the key to a more meaningful, relevant future for the Restoration in America and throughout the globe.” — Jason M. Olson, Ph.D., co-author of The Burning Book: A Jewish-Mormon Memoir