Home Home / Exchange with Dr. Mandelbaum about Appe…

Correspondence

May 1970

Exchange with Dr. Mandelbaum about Appearing on "In Contact" WNBC Radio Program (1970)

Orthodoxy & Other Denominations

1. Dr. Mandelbaum to R. Lamm

1. Dr. Mandelbaum to R. Lamm (May 7, 1970)

1. Dr. Mandelbaum to R. Lamm (May 7, 1970)

View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

Next Letter

RELATED CONTENT

Correspondence

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

Dear Dr. Lamm, As a member of the Massachusetts delegation you addressed yesterday (and as a YU graduate), I want to thank you for the splendid presentation you gave our group. I assure you that it was as effective as it was forthright and articulate. At our closing session Monday evening, one Conservative and Reform participant after another rose to declare that your speech was the trip's highlight. Said one woman, "Rabbi Lamm was an epiphany." All of us marveled at how clearly superior YU's efforts were to those of the other seminaries. Everyone likes to be taken seriously, and no one could miss the intensity with which you and your colleagues took seriously and in fact shared the goal of our mission: to promote Jewish unity. I have to tell you that as a YU alumnus, I was enormously proud. The result? Reform and Conservative participants were shocked into recognizing how distorted their stereotypes of Orthodox Jews were. (Perhaps we Orthodox members of the group helped a little, too.) But more important: the ideals by which we live commanded new respect by being set forth clearly and without apology. (For example, discussing "patrilineal descent," one Reform woman shook her head and said, "But I thought the Orthodox opposed it just because they wanted to have it their way and not ours. I didn't know there was a law involved.") Our group were concerned ba'alei batim, not radical ideologues; faced with an explanation of halacha, they wanted not to reject it, but to learn more about it. I am sure, Dr. Lamm, that you hoped to accomplish these things, and I just wanted to let you know that, at least as far as this particular group was concerned, you succeeded. Next, of course, you have to host a Unity delegation from Agudas Yisroel and the Chassidim of Munkacs... Meanwhile, we will do our best in Boston to have our leaders follow your example. Once again, thank you. Sincerely, Avi Rockoff
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations

Correspondence

Exchange with Dr. Marvin Schick about the Synagogue Council of America, Development of Halacha, and Israeli Religious Life (1969)

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,
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations

Correspondence

Exchange with Seymour Rosenbloom about Lecturing on Prayer at JTS (1969)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, During this semester, the Student Organization of the Rabbinical Department will be holding several study events dealing with T’fillah. Rabbi Herschel Matt will be continuing a bi-weekly discussion group which began last semester. In addition, we are organizing a series of several speakers who will deal with an aspect of prayer from their own individual point of view. I am writing to you, on behalf of my colleagues, to extend our invitation to you to speak to us on some evening during March, April or May. As a rough guide to our interests and concerns, I would like to suggest the following questions for your consideration. However, you should not feel in any way bound by them. First, can there be a meaningful theology of prayer for contemporary Judaism? Are new forms of prayer necessary? How does this approach and these forms relate to traditional categories of prayer? Let me re-iterate to you that these are merely suggestions. We want you to speak about aspects of prayer which you think are significant. I do hope that you will be able to join us, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely yours, Seymour Rosebloom
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations