To the editor:

I would like to respond to an error in a July 9 article on Spencer Research Library’s collection on the Kansas City Monarchs, which referred to the House of David as “an early 20th century Jewish baseball club.” While its baseball teams stopped touring in the 1950s, the Israelite House of David still exists as a communal religious society. The colony split in the late 1920s, with the reorganized group, led by Mary Purnell, calling itself Mary’s City of David. The City of David maintains property adjacent to the original properties of the Israelite House of David in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Though not Jewish, both groups observe practices associated with early Jewish-Christian doctrines similar to latter-day/millennial and Seventh-day Adventism. Their practices of communalism, celibacy, vegetarianism and pacifism are drawn from biblical teachings along with their observance of the Nazrarite Law of the Old Testament, which forbids the cutting of hair. Ron Taylor, a member of Mary’s City of David, helped to provide information for this letter.