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Correspondence

August-October 1966

Exchange with R. Sherer about Report Grouping R. Lamm with Left-Wing Rabbis (1966)

The Rabbinate

1. R. Sherer to R. Lamm

1. R. Sherer to R. Lamm (Aug. 16, 1966)

1. R. Sherer to R. Lamm (Aug. 16, 1966)

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Exchange with R. Schwarzschild about Invitation to Join Discussion on Rabbinic Training (1969)

Dear Norman, On Sunday, May 25, at 2:00 P.M., at the Stephen Wise Congress House, 15 East 84th Street, New York City, JUDAISM is calling together a group of interested people associated with our journal to discuss “The Future of Rabbinic Training in America.” Dr. Daniel Jeremy Silver, rabbi of The Temple, Cleveland, and president of the National Foundation of Jewish Culture, will lead off our deliberations; and we are inviting several men to respond, not so much to his suggestions as to their own view of the problem in general. We would be most honored to have you among our discussants. After a five-minute statement from each respondent—a summary of Dr. Silver’s presentation will be made available in advance—there will be a general confrontation of views, in the presence of an invited audience. The proceedings will be taped, as is our practice, with a view toward publication in the journal. I do not have to tell you of the crisis in rabbinic education (pointed up by Dr. Charles Liebman’s lead article in the current American Jewish Yearbook), but I must beseech your cooperation in helping us to bring insight and concern to bear upon our dilemmas. I believe that with your cooperation we can focus the issues for the greater benefit of the American Jewish community. I hope you will accept our invitation, and I look forward to hearing from you. With all best wishes for a chag kasher ve-sameach, Cordially, Steven
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Correspondence

Exchange with Rabbi about R. Lamm's Participation at Interdenominational HaDoar Dinner (1967)

Dear Rabbi Lamm: I was chagrined to read that you are scheduled to be one of the “three spiritual leaders of the three streams (zeramim) of Judaism,” as announced by the sponsors. I realize that this letter is in the category of what you chose to designate at the O.U. Convention as a “dull, obsessive litany” and, therefore, a waste of your time and an imposition on your patience. But I am impelled by a sense of duty to point out that this dinner honoring Conservative and Reform ministers, who for years have used their pulpits, the press and the public platform to teach a “Judaism” which repudiates the Torah in whole or in part, is a product of the climate of permissiveness, which has penetrated large segments of the Orthodox Rabbinate and community. I do not doubt that you considered all this before you agreed, in effect at least (certainly not intentionally) to help honor these ministers and their movements in the eyes of many Jews to whom your participation will make Conservative and Reform “Judaism” a little more respectable Jewishly speaking, than if, for example, you would have publicly rejected the invitation for ideological reasons. Nor do I believe that your message at this dinner, even if it should include a clear rejection of your co-honorees’ stand on “Judaism,” will correct the record, because many more people (not present at the affair) will know and remember the fact that you were a co-honoree with the other two, than what you said at the occasion. My letter is only half-finished and already I feel how useless my effort is when I recall that quite unlike your scholarly self, you chose to hurl such inflammatory terms as “red guards” against some of the rightists, instead of dealing with the issue on the merits. Certainly, when I recall that during the Friday night session, you not only chose to ignore and evade the questions I asked from the floor, but you also lectured me publicly on the waste of my alleged talents, I have no reason to expect a bette…
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Exchange with the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia about R. Lamm's Appointment to YU Presidency (1976)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, In behalf of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia and for ourselves personally, we extend a hearty מזל טוב and our warmest good wishes as you assume the office of the Presidency of Yeshiva University. Your elevation to the post occupied by your illustrious predecessor, Dr. Belkin, is a testimony to the Americanization of Jewish scholarship and religious leadership, a phenomenon which other faiths have also experienced. This development can but increase the communication between the sources of Torah and the people who should drink of its living waters, and generate understanding within the Jewish community and provide stimulus for the creative future of Judaism in this land. May this period of transition indicate areas of continuity with the great periods of Torah learning and commitment of the past. It is our fervent prayer that, in your pursuit of a task so sacred, the Shomer Yisrael be with you, grant you wisdom, and bestow upon you and your dear ones health, fulfillment and blessing. Sincerely yours, Rabbi Richard A. Levine, Vice President. Rabbi Morris V. Dembowitz, President. Rabbi Arnold H. Feldman, Vice President. Rabbi Harold Goldfarb, Executive Director.
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