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Correspondence

April 1965

Exchange with Lewis Mishkin about R. Lamm's Criticism of American Jewish Congress (1965)

Prayer Antisemitism Combating Assimilation

1. Lewis Mishkin to R. Lamm

1. Lewis Mishkin to R. Lamm (Apr. 20, 1965)

1. Lewis Mishkin to R. Lamm (April 20, 1965)

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Exchange with Baruch Litvin about His Misgivings Concerning R. Lamm's Participation at HaDoar Dinner (1966)

Dear Rebbi, Shalom: I hope this letter finds you and your family well in every respect. You will note by the above address that I am in Florida trying to recuperate from the illness and the operation. I do make progress but as yet have not completely recovered, but have hope that Hashem will help me. I was greatly distressed and depressed – mildly speaking – that Dr. Belkin was going to the Synagogue Council who has chosen to honor the heads of our 3 major seminaries, unquote. But I have no words to express my pain reading the following words in the Jewish newspaper (enclosing the announcement): “Three Religious Yiddishe Firerers will be honored,” and to my great astonishment—Reform and Conservative—and your being with them will naturally give status to them, recognition that they are religious leaders. Vehamaskil Yavin...So *Ani Hakoton*, Rabbi Lamm's *Chosid*, Baruch ben Moshe Ber, Ben Shlomoh, appeal to you to withdraw your name and declare publicly why.I am quoting to you what Rav Maimon זצ״ל wrote to Ben-Gurion in the matter of “Who is a Jew?” I quote:> “As a friend, I advise and wish that you, like other great men of Israel, will know how to rise above any considerations of personal honor. Acknowledge the truth and publicly declare: ‘As for the word I have spoken, I have made a mistake.’ This will be your greatness and your glory.”Should you ask yourself, what will be the gain? I then will quote again Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 9 and on. Look up the Malbim: when G-d tells Isaiah that he will fail, the prophet asks: then why should I go? And G-d answers him why he should go.And in the words of Buber on his essay “Plato and Isaiah,” at one place he states: Isaiah's failure is an integral part of the way he must take, and finishes his essay:> “But when the prophet feels like one who finds himself surrounded by wild beasts, he cannot withdraw to the role of a silent spectator, as Plato did. He must speak his message. The message will be misunderstood, misinte…

Correspondence

Exchange with Samuel Brenglass about R. Lamm's Appointments to JCRC and NCRAC Committee on Interreligious Activities (1962)

Upon the recommendation of Rabbi Abraham N. AvRutick, President of the Rabbinical Council of America, I am pleased to notify you of your appointment to the Joint Communal Relations Commission of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and of your designation to the Committee on Interreligious Activities of the National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC) as a representative of our Joint Commission. You will receive the meeting notices of the above committee directly from the NCRAC. Meeting notices and any other communications of the Joint Communal Relations Commission will, of course, be mailed to you directly from the Orthodox Union. I shall greatly appreciate your sending me a brief summary of the proceedings of the meetings attended by you.
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Correspondence

Exchange with Sanford Altschul about Judaism's Interaction with the Modern World (1966)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I want to write to you in order to tell you that I deeply admire your religious convictions, your broad range of learning, and your ability to write clearly with much depth. No one more than I appreciates it since I along with you like to base a personal philosophy of life within the framework of Judaism. I have read your reply to the questions posed in Commentary on the August symposium and have also had occasion to read your lecture Why be Orthodox in which particularistic insights like this in common with those who are firm in Tradition and Jewish life are meaningless. In general I am very happy you have taken this stand because nothing but harm and confusion is produced among those who have long since left Orthodoxy or to those Jews in the United States whose perspective of Judaism is one brought anything but learned and committed minded scholars. As a young man of age 26 and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison in political science along with having a religious background, I have been influenced strongly by such distinguished Orthodox Jewish writers and Jewish leaders by Leo Jung, Studies in Judaism by Solomon Schechter, Man and Judaism by Eliezer Berkovits, Judaism Eternal by Samson Raphael Hirsch, Judaism, Scholasticism and Islam by Louis Ginzburg, Jewish Law and Jewish Life by Pinchas Peli, The Philosophy of Judaism by Samuel Belkin, Reconstructionism, a Critical Appraisal by Eliezer Berkovits, Judaism, A Historical Presentation by Solomon Freehof, A History of the Jewish People by Max Margolis and Alexander Marx. I have a regular subscription for the past ten years to the Jewish Observer newspaper. I usually do not buy or read Commentary except on special occasions. However I find much dignity and honesty in what is expressed. I have wondered whether there were times when both the Orthodox and the Conservative were when Judaism was being trampled under by the numbers from Eastern Europe to the United States. Certainly West…
Modern Orthodoxy Jewish Education Orthodoxy & Other Denominations Combating Assimilation