On May 3, 1995, a landmark agreement was signed by representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and members of the Jewish community that ended the practice of Mormons posthumously baptizing Jews who were not direct ancestors of Mormons. The agreement calls for:

 

* Removing from the next issue of the Mormon's International Genealogical Index (IGI) the names of all known posthumously baptized Jewish Holocaust victims who were not direct ancestors of living members of the Church--some 360,000 entries. The IGI includes entries for more than 200 million deceased persons baptized as Mormons.
    

* Providing a list of the names of all Jewish Holocaust victims that are to be removed from the IGI to the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Commission, the New York Holocaust Memorial Commission, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, and written confirmation when the removal of these names has been completed.
    

* Reaffirming the policy and issuing a directive to all officials and members of the Church to discontinue any future baptisms of deceased Jews, including use of all lists of Jewish Holocaust victims who are known Jews, except if they are direct ancestors of living members of the Church, or the Church has the written approval of all living members of the deceased's immediate family.
 

* Confirming this policy in all relevant literature produced by the Church.
    

* Removing from the IGI in the future the names of all deceased Jews who are so identified if they are known to be improperly included counter to Church policy.
    

* Releasing to the American Gathering the First Presidency's 1995 directive.



The signing of this agreement was so significant that it received worldwide coverage in the print media, as well as on radio and television.