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March 1988

Call for More Vocal Moderates Shocks Local Orthodox Leaders (1988)

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Centrist Orthodoxy (1988)

Part of our collective self-criticism: A few days ago, here in Jerusalem, I heard the story of two or three of our young equivalents of Centrist Orthodoxy – the kippah serugah generation – who were driving and saw a hasid asking for a hitch. They picked him up and began a conversation. He was dressed in typical Hasidic garb, and they were in their shorts and knitted kippot. They asked him why he wears that particular outfit, and he replied, quite directly, “Because our teacher Moses dressed this way.” They were stunned, shocked, until one of them said, “Do you really think that Moses dressed this way?” He replied, “Well, maybe not – but he certainly didn’t dress the way you are dressed...”
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Torah Umadda: Centrist Orthodoxy - Re: Haredi Provincialism (1989)

The January 13, 1989 edition of Per Yid, the Satmar organ (which announces itself as the "Voice of American Orthodox Jewry"), carries an article on page 45 by a Rabbi Landsman, one of a series on, "The Trials of the New Generation." In this particular column, which otherwise has certain perceptive ideas on Talmud education, we read some rather astounding things about this group's formulation of the trials and temptations of being a Jew in the modern world. This particular article is directed to a relatively large amount of publication of halakhic works by people of suspect ideological purity. The Satmar Rebbe taught that no volume of pure Halakhah, even if it does not contain any questions of ideology, may be used if the author is not one of the "in-group," that is, those who identify with their brand of Orthodoxy. In the previous issue of Per Yid, in the article by the same author in this series, he tells of the late Tzehlemer Rav, Rabbi Levi Greenwald, who in the middle of a sheur asked a student to bring him a classic halakhic work (Shitah Mekubetzet on Pesahim), and when the student brought it he noticed that it was a fairly new volume, and he asked who issued it. The student answered that it was a Gershuni (the rabbinic title was removed from the story, although Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni has been prominent for ears as a distinguished talmudic scholar). The Tzehlemer Rav inquired whether this ws the same Gershuni who was active in Mizrachi, the organization of religious Zionism, and when the answer was affirmative he asked that the book be taken out immediately. When the student returned and the rabbi asked him what he did with the volume, and the student replied that he put it with the Shemot—the scraps of sacred literature that are prepared for being discarded and buried—the rabbi was alarmed and said, "No, that is not good enough; I want it out of this house altogether..." How does one examine the religious credentials of standard halakhic works which are otherw…
Modern Orthodoxy & the Charedim

Correspondence

Letter to R. Yaakov Jacobs about the Emerging Moderate Tone in The Jewish Observer (1969)

Dear Rabbi Jacobs: As one who has in the past expressed to you some rather harsh criticism of the Jewish Observer, I think it only fair for me to let you know how pleased I am with the change that has taken place in your magazine in the recent past. The improvement was especially noticeable in the last several issues and in the current one most of all. It is a sign of maturity that you were able to overcome the shrill, combative tone and the excessive polemics that once characterized the Jewish Observer. Your present posture, which is far more restrained and patient, is much more convincing to your readers. For all that I may disagree with some policies expressed in the Jewish Observer — some not all, of course — I now feel much more sympathetic and anxious to read what you have to say. My [hebrew illegible] and good wishes for the future. Cordially yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm
Modern Orthodoxy & the Charedim