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Daniel Rona (Hebrew: דניאל רונה) is a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) tour guide and theologian, famous in the LDS world for being the only officially licensed Israeli tour guide with LDS membership. He is also a theological researcher who promotes asserted links between LDS and Jewish traditions. Rona regards himself as both LDS and Jewish.
Daniel Rona was born in 1941 in the British Mandate of Palestine to two German-Jewish refugee parents. As a young child, his parents divorced, and he moved with his father to New York, where the two of them converted to become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Later, they both moved to Salt Lake City, where young Daniel grew up. As a young adult, Rona served an LDS mission in Germany, where he visited his mother Kitty and his stepfather Zvi Tohar.
After the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur war, Daniel Rona desired to make aliyah, and he, his wife Marilyn Minardi, and their children moved to Israel in 1974. At first, Daniel Rona was denied financial aid and recognition as a returning Jew because of his LDS affiliation, but he did not leave, and eventually this recognition was granted by the government and he became a citizen of Israel.
Seeing a growing demand for LDS tourism in Israel, Daniel Rona became a professional tour guide, organizing LDS tours of a religious nature in Israel and neighboring countries. He later founded the Ensign Foundation, a charitable non-profit organization for promoting multilateral education between Israel and other countries, as well as funding scientific research and archaeological digs.
Daniel Rona today lives in Jerusalem with his wife Marilyn and their five children. He manages the LDS tourism service Israel Revealed.
See also: Mormonism and Judaism, Star of David
External links
- Israel Revealed (http://www.israelrevealed.com/) (Daniel Rona's LDS tour service)
- Daniel Rona (http://www.israelrevealed.com/bio-r.htm) (bio)
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