An ethnic group which has done public battle with the LDS Church is Judaism. According to Richard and Joan Ostling, in the mid-1990s about 380,000 deceased Jews had proxy baptisms performed in their names in various LDS temples. They included many Jews who died in Nazi concentration camps including Anne Frank; Sigmund Freud, David Ben-Gurion and Ba”‘al Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic Jewish movement. Adding insult to injury, zealous Mormons also stood in proxy for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, believing they effected their baptisms and sealings to one another as husband and wife for eternity.
If the prospect of meeting Hitler as a god in eternity rankles the sensitivities of most non-Mormons, imagine the impact of such an idea on a Jew. While they, like many Christians, would put little credence in the eternal effect of such temple ordinances, the idea of proxy Mormonism is reprehensible to them, as voiced by Aaron Breitbart, senior researcher for the Simon Weisenthal Center based in Los Angeles, “. . .[t]hese people were born Jews, they lived as Jews and many of them died because they were Jews. . .They would not have chosen to be baptized Mormons in life, and there is no reason they would want to be baptized by proxy in death.”
In 1995 the LDS Church agreed to remove all such names from their databases and to stop baptizing any deceased Jew unless he or she is an ancestor of a living Mormon, or, alternately, the Church had obtained written permission from all living members of the Jew”‘s family. Researcher Helen Radkey estimates, however, that over a million Jews have had proxy temple ordinances performed after the agreement of the LDS Church to cease performing vicarious baptisms for Jews.
For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.
Being a Christian author means being a proxy - for the benefit of another and…
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There is no uniform "Jewish" objection to LDS proxy baptisms. Eugene Volokh and Erik Jaffe, both of The Volokh Conspiracy blog (and both of whom are Jewish), don't see anything objectionable out it:
Volokh: If you're Mormon, then presumably you'd want your relatives baptized. If you're not Mormon, then presumably you would think that some Mormon in some temple somewhere going through some ritual while mentioning people's names would be spiritually pointless. It would have no effect on the people, on their afterlives (if you think they have afterlives), on God, or on anything else. So what's the problem?
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The Mormons aren't forcing anything on any living person. They're not exhuming anyone's body. They aren't insulting anyone, except insofar as they're suggesting that their religion is the right one, and that people ought to want to convert to it -- and if that itself qualifies as an insult, then it seems to me that people are too easily insulted.
Jaffe: I actually find it somewhat endearing that Mormons are concerned enough about my erstwhile soul to try and protect it in a non-intrusive manner after my death. Other religious groups are not so considerate and instead seek to intimidate the @#%$ out of you or otherwise confront and demean you while you are alive in a supposed effort to save your soul. I have my doubts about the true motives of the hell-and-brimstone types, but the Mormons seem perfectly genuine to me. At worst it is no-harm, no-foul; at best they do me a great service.
http://volokh.com/2002_12_08_volokh_archive.html
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is similarly unimpressed with complaints about vicarious baptism:
I could not care less if the Mormons baptize me after I'm dead. It won't affect me. I'll always be a Jew, in this life and the next. If this is part of Mormon practice and belief, and they do it in the privacy of their own ritual, and it doesn't affect me in the slightest, why should I care? People's beliefs are their own business. It's how they treat others that is everyone's business. What I care about is how much the Mormons support Israel today, not what they do with Jewish souls in what they regard as the afterlife.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36329
So I think you overstate your criticism when you characterize *all* Jews as taking offense to LDS proxy baptisms.
Thank you. I don't think I used the word "all" but I certainly did imply it. I stand corrected if I gave that impression, and appreciate the links you sent.
By the way, if you'd like an impression of how "real" people --who aren't LDS, nor anti-LDS, nor ex-LDS, feel about this issue please take a look at the current HBO Big Love discussion boards. There, best as I can see, only Mormons see it as a positive thing. Most people are more than incensed about it.
A comment from Maranda:
I am not Jewish nor Mormon, but I am appauled by this non sense! I agree that it really doesnt affect anyone since LDS is really a load of crap, but it''s disrespectful to infringe on someone''s personal beliefs. That is why proxy can only be done after life. Living people would not stand for such non-sense. Then members of the LDS would see that no one wants to be in their cult. Because I am sure 9 times (at least) out of ten they would be rejected.