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Correspondence

January-March 1964

Exchange with R. Lapin about Orthodox Jewish Scientists in South Africa (1964)

Torah & Science South Africa

1. R. Lapin to R. Lamm

1. R. Lapin to R. Lamm (Jan. 10, 1964)

1. R. Lapin to R. Lamm (Jan. 10, 1964)

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Correspondence

Exchange with R. Lapin about Invitation to Speak at Synagogue and Organizing Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists in South Africa (1963)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, Dr. Azriel Rosenfeld has probably told you that he has written to me and mentioned your name with regard to the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists. Needless to say, you are very well-known to me through your writings and the Rabbinical work you have done, and your many achievements. The real purpose of this letter is to tell you how very pleased my wife and I are about your impending visit. I have already spoken to the South African Jewish Board of Education asking them to make arrangements for you to preach at my Synagogue and to spend Friday night and Shabbat with us in our home. It will be a very great honour and privilege for us to have you, and I have a very satisfying suspicion that you will enjoy preaching in my Synagogue. The attendance is an excellent one, and those who come to Synagogue are of a high intellectual standard. I would also like to make arrangements for certain of our members to meet you. I hope that providing the South African Jewish Board of Education is agreeable to this arrangement that it also meets with your approval. In the meantime, if there is anything at all that I can do for you here please do not fail to ask me. I shall be only too happy to be of some assistance to so distinguished a guest. Kind regards, and very best wishes for a happy journey and safe landing in South Africa. Sincerely yours, [Signature]
South Africa

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Exchange with Sonia Davis about Science and Judaism (1966)

Dear Dr. Lamm: Please pardon the presumption of an eighty-four year old woman of addressing you to add a word of my own to your wonderful thesis in the B’nai B’rith Messenger of Los Angeles, Calif. Many years ago, the late Josef Stalin (of unblessed memory) boasted that his chemists could produce life in a test tube. Could they also produce the sun, moon and stars, among which, as you know, is Arcturus? Could any chemist produce the four seasons? Could any of the scientists produce the heavens, the seven seas, and the earth? The winds, as they “bloweth” – whence they come from and whither they go? The late Professor Charles Steinmetz created artificial thunder and lightning, which has been copied in, and by theatricals; but aside of the so-called “rain-makers” what humans, even the greatest scientists, can produce the natural elements? I thoroughly believe in, and admire some of the wonderful things that science has done for the benefit of humanity, but some of them we could well do without, such as murderous weapons and other death-dealing productions, such as are now being used in the present wars. No amount of wrongs can make a right. Perhaps the distant future will find a better way. We no longer live in a cave; we are living on a planet and neither time nor tide nor divide distances. Very sincerely yours, Sonia H.D
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Correspondence

Letter from Dr. Rosenfeld to R. Lapin about Lecture to Orthodox Jewish Scientists in South Africa (1963)

Dear Rabbi Lapin: With reference to my letter of September 30, Rabbi Lamm has informed me that he will be visiting South Africa beginning the first week in February 1964. Rabbi Lamm's itinerary while in South Africa is being arranged by Mr. Misheiker, who is Chairman of the Jewish Board of Education. He suggests that you arrange with Mr. Misheiker to pick an evening (or perhaps Sunday afternoon) when he can speak to as large as possible a group of Orthodox Jewish scientists in Johannesburg. If you have not succeeded in organizing a group by that time, Rabbi Lamm's visit might provide an excellent stimulus for an organizational meeting.Yours very truly,Dr. Azriel RosenteldPresident
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