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Correspondence

June 1971

Exchange with R. Lorincz about His Speech on the Israeli "Black Panther" Movement (1971)

Zionism

1. R. Lorincz to R. Lamm

1. R. Lorincz to R. Lamm (June 8, 1971)

1. R. Lorincz to R. Lamm (June 8, 1971)

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Exchange with R. Shragai about Rabbi Lamm Publishing with Mossad Harav Kook (1971)

לכבוד ידידי יקירי הרב נחום לאם שליט"א ניו יורק שא ברכת ד' מציון וירושלים, קיבלתי מכתבך בכ"ה בתשרי ש"ז ועלתה בדעתי מחשבה: בזמנו פורסם ב"פנים אל פנים" דבריך על הנעשה במלחמת ששת הימים וכי אין לבאר ולהסביר מה שהתרחש בשכל ובטבע בלבד. הייתי מציע אולי תרחיב את הדיבור לבאר ולהסביר כל ענין הציונות, הרצון לקרב את הגאולה ע"י מעשים, גאולת הארץ ועלייה אליה מתוך מסירת נפש בכל הדורות ובייחוד מאחרי מלחמת העולם הראשונה, כוח העמידה של היישוב – בכל זה מתגלה יד ד' וכו'. אם הצעתי מתקבלת על דעתך אנא הודיעני. בברכת כ"ט בס"ד ובהערצה, ש"ז שרגאי
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Exchange with Ruth Weil about "The Ideology of the Neturei Karta" (1972)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I just got the latest issue of Tradition and read your article on the Ideology of the Neturei Karta. There are a few points I would like to raise and also ask you a few questions. I hope you do not mind! To begin with a general impression. To me your presentation of the ideology seems to be clothed in a sort of “sympathetic regret.” You agree, that fundamentally the basis of Neturei Karta stands on very shaky grounds. But one has a feeling “It could have been so nice, if it only could have been true.” Waiting in the Galuth anywhere as long as life was normal or bearable, then seek refuge in a more favourable place, until one day miraculously the Mashiach would appear and bring us all back to our land. We all have been brought up somehow on this idea, and may feel at times sort of nostalgic to realize our error. I also do think we never visualized this ingathering of our people in a concrete way, no one pondered much how this coming back would technically materialize, as it was to be miraculous. (Incidentally Chaim Hazaz once said something like: Jews always pray for the Mashiach to come, but deep in their hearts they pray, that the gentile should no be too bad towards them.) Convinced of our belief of the return to Eretz Israel, we rejected at a great majority Zionism at its very beginning, no one could conceive redemption initiated by the most secular and atheistic group of Jews. I am not challenging here the Neturei Karta, but would like to ask you, how can the Satmarer Rav pretend that the holocaust was a result and punishment of the Zionists challenging Hitler and declaring war on Germany? Hitler published his attitude towards the Jewish people and the Jews well before he came to power. If an affirmation is based on the very beginning on wrong facts, then of course all that happened later can be derived accordingly. Why do you find at times the logic of the Satmarer Rav piquant? (p. 51) The idea if God would have wanted our return to the old C…
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Letter to R. Maurice Lamm Explaining His Change of Mind about the Israeli Black Panthers (1971)

In one of my recent letters to you I rather belittled the Israeli version of the Black Panthers. On further study and personal confrontation, I have reached quite different conclusions. It seems to me now that there is no room for disparagement or patronising and we had better take the matter seriously, with a view to encouraging every kind of constructive effort before the situation gets out of hand. The immediate occasion for my change of judgement was a debate held under the joint auspices of the Panthers and the Hebrew University students. I attended the meeting and feel that it calls for a full report to you, which I propose to give in the following. Before doing so, however, I must make a reservation. I was profoundly stirred by what I heard and saw. Indeed, I find it hard to recall a similarly disturbing experience outside the scope of my personal concerns. I therefore wish to inject a note of caution lest I am carried away by subjective impressions. Actually, there was nothing novel either for me or for you or for any one else who has followed social developments in Israel. We have all been long familiar with the problems discussed — or shall I say, bursting out with tremendous vehemence on that particular occasion. But the emotional impact on me and the entire audience was overpowering, and I have already observed that note has been taken with surprising promptness in some important quarters - by Pinhas Sapir, Teddy Kollek and in the Knesset, to mention only the more outstanding examples. At the same time, it is worth pointing out that the press coverage was grotesquely inadequate and you should not be misled by any nonchalant items which may come to your attention. You know that the ordinary newspaper is interested above all in sensations that lend themselves to big headlines. Had the meeting broken up in violence, as it threatened to do at one stage, you can be sure that the papers would have carried a full story - they did so in connection with the rece…
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