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Correspondence

February-March 1974

Exchange with R. Borowitz about R. Lamm's Debate on Messianism with R. Spero (1974)

Orthodoxy & Other Denominations Israel & the Middle East Religion & State

1. Dr. Borowitz to R. Lamm

1. Dr. Borowitz to R. Lamm (Feb. 28, 1974)

1. Dr. Borowitz to R. Lamm (Feb. 28, 1974)

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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 R. Jakobovits about Political Involvement in "Who Is a Jew" Issue (1974)

Dear Norman, Thank you so much for your letter and enclosures which I read with special interest. The sermons, though in the nature of things somewhat depressing, show your usual mastery of thought, analysis, expression and homiletics. They mirror an assessment of the American reaction to the War rather different from what I have observed in the Anglo-Jewish community, where indifference, let alone hostility, were very little in evidence. I felt the contrast myself when I briefly visited America for the marriage of our son in Detroit at the time of the cease-fire. I am now looking forward with particularly eager anticipation to your contribution at the Hebrew University Conference. This must have been quite a fascinating and stimulating experience. On the Mafdal front, our discussion has been overtaken by events culminating in the, to my mind, rather humiliating capitulation of its ill-advised stand. The whole episode reeks with inconsistency, short-sightedness and sheer folly. I am enclosing a statement I circulated among my colleagues which will indicate my position, lonely and subject to no end of abusive attacks as it was. From all the evidence I have, your information on the Rav’s attitude is not altogether accurate. My information from Fabian and other sources is that, presumably capitulating to the agitation fanned by Lubavitch, he took the initiative in pressing Goren to forbid the Mafdal to join the coalition – a decision which may, I fear, be rued for years to come. I also gather, contrary to what you write, that Yosef, far from threatening to fall out with Goren over his refusal to countenance the Mafdal’s joining the Government, in fact adopted the far more reasonable attitude of leaving the political decision to the party itself. As I intimate in my statement, I believe the solution now lies in taking the whole issue out of the political arena and placing it into the hands of the Rabbinate where it properly belongs. In alluding to the proposal you men…
Religion & State Who Is a Jew?

Correspondence

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…
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations