By Jeff Call
Deseret Morning News

      It's no secret that Israel is one of the most volatile regions in the world. In fact, the U.S. State Department has warned Americans to defer travel to that area due to ongoing security concerns.

Daniel Rona Lisa Marie Miller, Deseret Morning News

      Still, that hasn't deterred Daniel Rona from taking LDS tour groups there to study the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
      Rona is an anomaly — he's an Israeli, an American, a Mormon and a Jew. He was born in Israel and raised in the United States, where he worked as a radio broadcaster in Salt Lake City before moving to Israel with his wife and children in 1974.
      After completing a two-year training at the Ministry of Tourism Course for Guides at the Hebrew University, he became the first — and only — LDS licensed guide and tour operator in Israel, which requires all tour groups to be led by a licensed guide.
      Because of his background, Rona's tours are filled with insights from both a Jewish and LDS perspective. In the three decades since his company, Holy Lands Revealed, based in both Salt Lake City and Jerusalem, began leading tours to Israel, he says he has never had any safety problems.
      In fact, Rona says, no patron on an official Israeli tour has ever suffered injuries or death.
      "It's virtually impossible to get into trouble because we're putting up fences, keeping the West Bank separated," Rona says. "There are bad guys who are making it dangerous, so we have to put up fences."
      Rona says he knows the area well and simply keeps his clientele out of harm's way.
      "Bad guys don't like good places. Think you'll find a terrorist hanging around the garden tomb? There's too much spirit there. It doesn't matter what church you belong to. You tell your kids to stay away from dark and seedy places. Those people like their places and good people don't."
      Holy Lands Revealed is the only tour company catering to the LDS market that currently offers trips to Israel, though others are hoping to return there again one day.
      Brigham Young University-sponsored travel groups haven't gone there in nearly four years, according to BYU Travel Study director George Talbot. "We go by what the State Department tells us," he says.
      BYU's Jerusalem Center hasn't had students there since 2000, when conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians forced an early end to fall semester for 174 students who were studying and traveling in the Holy Land.
      Still, the school's 17-year-old Jerusalem Center remains open. Along with daily tours, Sunday church meetings and concerts are held there, Rona says.
      "The notion has been tourists are not allowed in Israel. This comes out of Mormondom," Rona says. "I ask people, 'Where are you getting this from?' And they say, 'The church has told us not to come.' "
      In the wake of 9/11 and the ongoing violence in the region, Rona's tours to Israel disappeared. "In our heyday, prior to 9/11, we had about 1,000 people a year that went with us," he says. "That dropped to zero for several years."
      Now, he says, interest is picking up again. He returned from a trip to Israel in January and he will lead a group there in late May. He anticipates that about 150 to 200 people will go with him there this year.
      "We've had some impartial surveys done and time and again, the No. 1 destination choice for LDS travelers is Israel," Rona says.
      "It was a spiritual trip," says Ray Montgomery, who took a trip to Israel with Rona in 1995. "Daniel is polished. He did a very good job."
      Given the climate in Jerusalem, he's not sure how much longer it will be possible to visit Israel. "That window is not going to be open that long. I'm not a prophet. I can't tell you how long until an Armageddon scenario begins," Rona says. "But there used to be approximately 4,000 Latter-day Saints a year going to Israel, between the students, tourists, and seminary and institute teachers. Now, we're the only ones going to Israel."
      As part of his work, Rona has also created the Ensign Foundation, a charitable, non-profit organization that fosters relationships between Israel and other groups.
      "It's an excuse for Israelis and Mormons to work together," he says.
      Latter-day Saints believe that people who inhabited the American continent during the times outlined in one of their canons of scripture, the Book of Mormon, originally came from Jerusalem. The book describes how the family of Lehi, guided by God, fled Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and arrived in a "Promised Land."
      That land, according to some Book of Mormon scholars, is believed to be located in Central America. While Holy Lands Revealed offers trips to Central America, Rona's expertise lies, of course, in Israel. He thrives on teaching about connections between Israel and America.
      "Those who go to Israel with us find their religious roots are revealed," Rona says.