Northwest Gathering October 2015, Mercer Island WA

The Seattle/NW Chapter of B'nai Shalom, Children of Peace, Org. celebrated its fourth semiannual gathering Thursday evening, with beautiful music by Teah and David Akrish.

We gained better understanding of the 10 tribes of Israel from author Leslie Pearson Rees.

Lots of food, Jewish and Other

A delectable smorgasbord

Jewish LDS, other LDS and interested friends attended our Seattle/NW gathering. Phil and Sara Ortega hosted. About 50 were in attendance.

While we enjoyed the great variety and amount of food at our buffet, local musicians David and Teah Akrish serenaded us on viola and guitar, accompanied by Jamin Hoggard on the piano. Their music was a spiritual feast. We enjoyed a sing along of hymns in Hebrew and the Kol Nidrei selection, ceremonial music of Yom Kippur.

Our Seattle and Salt Lake geneologist, Mary Kozy, assisted Sephardic Jewish member Morrie Tacher to find his immigration papers online.

Sister Baker spoke two minutes on the status of B'nai Shalom organization as a whole. There are over 900 members world wide.

Prior to Sister Rees' lecture, film producer Robert Starling presented a short "teaser" of a film, "Israel, Do You Know?", about Jews who have joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Leslie Pearson Rees of Utah spoke on "Ye Have Been Hid - Finding the Lost Tribes of Israel", the result of 40 years of gathering.
She made a very imformative, interesting presentation which revealed the history, dispersion and gathering of the tribes of Israel from ALL CORNERS OF THE EARTH. 

President Phil Ortega acknowledged the Spirit of God in our lives, our Church, and our faith in Christ. His closing testimony:

We acknowledge those who helped with setup, serving, kitchen duty, and take-down. Thanks especially to the Taylors and Tachers, who traveled from other counties to attend. Thanks also to our organization president, Marlena Tanya Muchnick-Baker for her assistance and leadership in this endeavor.