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Correspondence

January-October 1966

Exchange with Dan Abraham about Jewish Advocacy and Vietnam (1966)

General Jewish Thought

1. Dan Abraham to R. Lamm

1. Dan Abraham to R. Lamm (1966)

1. Dan Abraham to R. Lamm (Jan. 1, 1966)

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Exchange with Michael Tabor about Chabad and Jews in Yugoslavia (1971)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I trust you are well and hope after this long absence you have not forgotten about me. Very much has happened in the last nin months so that really I don't know where to begin. There is so much I want to say about my experiences in Yugoslavia and my inner growth and development that perhaps I must save it up until I meet you one day. I hope to be in New York in the summer to see the Rebbe and perhaps I’ll see you then.I thought you may be interested in a summary of the report about the Yugoslavian trip that I made for WUJS and a copy of a short letter I wrote to the Rebbe just after I returned. We still keep in touch and WUJS is sending another group this year. My memories are so exhilarating but sad. My experiences were stimulating to an unimaginable degree and yet when I reflect especially on the situation of the 2 Czech students and 6 Rumanians and the look in their eyes when we finally said farewell, I feel terribly spiritually on edge, a numbness, a feeling of insignificant impotence. The discussions I had late at night with a most refined sensitive soul from Zagreb who was so ashamed about his ignorance of Judaism; the mature student from Sarajevo who was born amongst Tito's partisans in the woods and had hadno Bris etc., etc., all these memories fill me with both joy and sadness. I'll have to writ a book one day. Even now when I talk about what was also a wonderful holiday, I soon become high and talk with Hislahavus about Klall Yisrael.I also enclose a little article I had published about Chabad. It was in response to a rather negative letter that the editor asked me to reply to in 250 words. My involvement with Chabad has developed slowly but surely since I last wrote to you. The more I learn for myself in the original Yiddish and Hebrew texts, the more I became amazed about the depths that exist within the Jewish tradition. In fact I feel annoyed that for so long I was deprived of the philosophy and poetic approach of Chabad. One hears so…
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Exchange with R. Shaffer about "The Royal Reach," Russian Jewry, and Vietnam (1973)

Dear Rabbi Lamm שליט״א, I am writing to you, first of all, to express how [inspired] I was from reading your book, called The Royal Reach, and having now read it through twice, it has certainly given me a lot of interesting new insights into the problems of the world today as seen from an Orthodox point of view. However, since the book was first published in 1970, and now over 2½ years have gone by since this time, I am writing to you for your ideas on certain subjects which were covered in your book, on which perhaps now your opinions may have changed.
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Exchange with Sam Brost about Jewish Underpopulation (1966)

Dear Rabbi: Due to the wide gap of our numbers in comparison with the other so-called monolithic faiths it appears wise policy to stress quality and diminish the importance of numbers in an open forum such as you did in your sermon in your usual superb manner last Saturday. However, in the light of Torah, knowledgeable people must be deeply concerned about numbers and bend all efforts to find out where in the past we failed to carry out the first part of the covenant between G–d and Abraham which reads as follows: “Look now toward the Heaven and count the stars, if thou be able to count them and said unto him, so shall thy seed be.” Evidently this means numbers. Then G–d said “I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee” etc. which also implies quality. Our Creator was concerned with numbers for it is he who ordered the census to be taken. G–d also gave us all the guidance in His Torah to acquire both numbers and quality in which, in the past, we apparently failed by omission at numbers. You are right. Dialogues with Christianity will serve no useful purpose because we are almost 2000 years too late for that. We are urgently in need of serious and constant dialogues between the learned and wise of our people to elicit the points of Torah which lead to accomplish that which G–d willed us. With warm regards to you and yours, I am Most sincerely yours, Sam Frost
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