The religious values of presidents seldom satisfactorily explain their attitudes toward the Jews. Franklin Roosevelt’s Episcopalian faith could not have foretold his hard-hearted policies during the Holocaust. Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter, both Baptists, went in opposite directions, with Truman quick to grant Israel diplomatic recognition and Carter conspicuous in his anti-Israelism. Who knows to what extent Barack Obama’s affiliation with the United Church of Christ provides any insight into his administration’s erratic, often disquieting policies toward Jerusalem? Israel’s media dutifully covered Romney‘s complaint that Obama has been too quick to chasten the Jewish state and his pledge to make Israel his first foreign destination if elected. However, should Romney capture the nomination, Israelis, as Americans have done, will probably find themselves getting a crash course on his Mormon faith.
Mormons see themselves as Christians, although to the consternation of Christian fundamentalists, some of them identify Jesus with the God of the Hebrew Bible and hold a schismatic view of the Trinity in which God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct deities. Like Christian Zionists, Mormons believe that the Jewish return to the Land of Israel is a precursor to the second coming of the Christian messiah.
Mormon theology is particularly philo-Semitic. The faithful consider their Church part of the House of Israel. They deem themselves spiritual descendants of the Israelite tribe of Ephraim—which escaped Babylonian captivity by migrating to North America around 586 B.C.E., though their civilization disappeared around 400 C.E. (The Book of Mormon has the tribe fleeing Jerusalem prior to the Babylonian conquest.) Mormons believe their scripture, revealed to Smith by an angel, contains writings by ancient prophets including Lehi, whom God commanded to lead those Israelites to America.
Read More on Jewish views of Mormons and Mormon views of Jews.