Letter to R. Mandel about Spending Shabbat in Wellington, New Zealand (1973)

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Dear Rabbi Mandel: I was just visited by Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovitz, and he recommended that I spend my second Shabbat in Wellington. He mentioned the name of Rabbi Rosenfeld. Would you be kind enough to let me have his name and address so that I may write to him? If you answer before 1 July, please write to me at my New York address. Otherwise, c/o Bachrach, 1003 Howey Court, 234 Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000 AUSTRALIA.

Rabbi Jakobovitz and his wife send you their fondest regards.

Cordially yours,

Rabbi Norman Lamm

NL:cw

Letter to R. Mandel about Kosher Accommodations in New Zealand (1973)

My dear Rabbi Mandel: About two years ago, I gave a series of lectures at the Harry Fischel Institute in Jerusalem. At that time, I believe you were connected with the Institute. I may be mistaken, but that is my impression. At any rate, whether you are or are not the person I have in mind, I do hope you will permit me to impose upon you with a number of queries for information. Mrs. Lamm and I plan to spend about four weeks in Australia on a series of lectures this coming summer (winter for you). On our return trip, we were thinking of spending a week or ten days in New Zealand. We would want to leave Australia for New Zealand some time immediately after תשעה באב.Now, my question is whether you know of any strictly kosher people who are willing to accommodate travelers in Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch. Of course, we are willing to pay for all accommodations.This will considerably facilitate what we hope will be a brief motor tour through your country. In the event that kosher facilities in any or all of these communities, would you be kind enough to let me know if there are any hotels or motels nearby should we decide to spend a Shabbat in such community.Do let me hear from you as soon as possible, and many many thanks in advance for responding to me.Cordially,Rabbi Norman LammNL:cw

Australia & New Zealand

Letter from R. Mandel about State of Jewry in Auckland, New Zealand (1973)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, שליט"א, I was delighted to learn of your plan to visit New Zealand and am looking forward to welcoming you in Auckland on the 9th of August. Please, let me have your flight No. so that I can await you. Please accent a very sincere invitation to spend your 1st Shabbat with us. Both my Congregation and I would be deeply honoured if you were to occupy my pulpit on שבת נחמו. I booked you in at the Grafton Oaks Motor Lodge, which is about ten minutes walking distance from the Synagogue, for 3-4 days initially, commencing on August 9th. Hopefully this arrangement will be satisfactory.For your information I should like to give a brief description of N.Z. Jewry and the circumstances prevailing at present. We have here, in this Dominion, approximately 4000 Jews. About two thousand live in Auckland, slightly less in Wellington cca. 125 souls in Christchurch; 50-60 in Hastings-Napier, about 40 in Dunedin and a few families in Palmerston-North and Hamilton etc. To my knowledge – and I have been here since 31.8.1971 – there is not a single שומר שבת that attends my Synagogue and at present I could not partake of a cooked meal in the home of my congregants with the possible exception of 2 or 3.There is a butchery, the premises of which are sublet by the Congregation to a non-Jew. This butchery is subsidized by the Board of the Congregation to the tune of several thousand dollars, annually. This butcher sells the meat without supervision. He sells the whole beast including the unporged hind-quarters, and some people are under an illusion that this is כשר.When in Sydney at last year’s Ministers’ Assoc. Conference I took the opportunity to discuss this and related matters with the Sydney Beth Din, whose ruling was, that until they continue to sell hind-quarters I should under no circumstance buy from that butchery. In consequence I am constrained to buy my meat from the Wellington Kosher-Coop., several hundred miles away; and the butchery operation in Auckland witho…

Australia & New Zealand

Letter to R. Mandel about Lecturing and Kashrut Arrangements in Auckland, New Zealand (1973)

My dear Rabbi Mandel: It was a genuine pleasure hearing from you and receiving your most gracious invitation, which my wife and I cordially accept. Your description of the condition of New Zealand Jewry is certainly depressing, and I can appreciate the tone of your letter. I have always felt that it is people such as yourself in the rabbinate who are manning the loneliest outposts of Jewry, and therefore deserve all the more credit than those of us who have the good fortune to be in the large centered. It will be my pleasure to preach in your congregation on Shabbat נחמו and to be your guest for that Shabbat. I do hope that we are not imposing upon you and your kind wife.In answer to your inquiry, I expect to be arriving in Auckland on Thursday, August 9 אי"ה, 12:45 P.M. aboard Quantas #850. My wife should be arriving the same day, at 3:15 P.M. aboard TE #222. I certainly do not want to inconvenience you, and therefore it will be more than adequate if you meet me at the airport at the later date, because I prefer to wait for my wife end greet her upon landing.Your description of the deplorable condition of kashrut in New Zealand certainly makes travel more difficult for observant Jews. Nevertheless, we are determined to do the best we can, and will attempt to survive on what little kosher processed food you have and what we can bring in with us from Australia. Our present intentions are to rent a car in Auckland from Sunday morning, August 12 and from there to visit Waitomo and Rotorua and from there proceed to Wellington. We there would like to leave the car and take the overnight ferry to Christchurch, and perhaps take the air excursions which I have read about.I wonder if you know how we can make provisions for kosher food were we to spend Shabbat in Christchurch or Wellington. If that is impossible, we shall try to be back in Auckland for the second Shabbat, because we expect to leave for the States on August 19 and 20 (my wife and I do not travel on the same a…

Australia & New Zealand