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Correspondence

October-December 1987

Exchange with Dr. Avi Rockoff about Speaking to Cross-Denominational Group (1987)

Orthodoxy & Other Denominations

1. Dr. Avi Rockoff to R. Lamm

1. Dr. Avi Rockoff to R. Lamm (Oct. 28, 1987)

1. Dr. Avi Rockoff to R. Lamm (Oct. 28, 1987)

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Dear Norman: As you know, WNBC-AM and WNBC-FM present a weekly discussion program called "In Contact" Sunday nights at 9:05-9:55 p.m. The program, broadcast live from Rockefeller Center, features three clergymen of the major faiths taking telephone calls on a timely issue. We would be very pleased if you would participate in "In Contact." For this, you would have to have available the first, third, fourth and fifth (if applicable) Sundays in one month. (NBC asks that we obtain a full one-month commitment, to give continuity to the program.) The Department of Radio and Television will notify NBC of your acceptance. You would have to appear at the WNBC Studios no earlier than 8:45 p.m. each Sunday, and you would be finished by 10 p.m. You would not have to prepare any remarks as the entire operation depends on the spontaneous interplay between panelist and caller, and between panelists.We hope you will be able to take part in "In Contact" and look forward to hearing from you shortly.With every good wish.Sincerely yaurs,Bernard MandelbaumRabbi Norman LammThe Jewish Center 131 West 86th Street New York, New York 10024BM: jv
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Dear Rabbi Lamm, I'm in between classes at Bar-Ilan, which is as good a time as any to begin a letter of this sort. When it will be finished, I can't say since I'm certain that it will be that long. First, an apology and an explanation. The former for the difficulty you will encounter if you attempt to read the whole thing. My handwriting, if one can employ such a word here, is rotten to begin with and goes downhill after the first half-hour or so. I'm sorry,
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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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