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Correspondence

Sep. 20, 1962

Letter from R. Jakobovits to Cardinal Spellman about His Meeting with R. Jakobovits and R. Lamm (1962)

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Letter to R. Avrutick about R. Lamm's Appointments to JCRC and NCRAC Committee on Interreligious Activities (1962)

Dear Abe: I just received a note from Samuel Brennglass informing me that upon your recommendation I had been appointed to the Joint Communal Relations Commission and to the Committee on Interreligious Activities of NCRAC. Thank you for your confidence, and I hope to do the best I can. Sincerely, Rabbi Norman Lamm
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Letter to R. Joseph Lookstein about "Midstream" Reporting of Meeting with Cardinal Spellman (1962)

Dear Rabbi Lookstein: I really and truly appreciate the time and effort you take to concern yourself with my recent entanglement. I therefore thank you very much for your letter of December 27th and the clipping from The Jewish Chronicle. As a matter of fact, I had already seen this clipping from our friend [redacted]. Your suggestion, "read it and smile," is accepted by me with gratitude. Perhaps when you read the enclosed photocopy of an article by Leo Pfeffer in the recent *Midstream* you will think I ought to howl uncontrollably...As I told you when we met at the wedding, I would like to tell you the whole story and perhaps you will appreciate how a project conceived in good will and executed in what was supposed to be the greatest confidence has been betrayed and maligned in a manner so grotesque as to make the whole thing seem a trifle surrealistic — as if I were living in a world created by a Kafka.At any rate, with regard to the article by \[name omitted], she has far surpassed the malice of which I thought she was capable. The fact is that some three weeks ago I called her and informed her of the real facts in the situation. This means, quite clearly, that she is not only not interested in the truth, but is actively engaged in creating vicious falsehoods in a manner consistent with the feline of the species. But, as you say, "read it and smile." In the future I suspect it will have to be an either-or choice: either read or smile...I am still awaiting that long-promised talk with you which will be, of course, at your convenience.Fondest regards to Mrs. Lookstein.Very cordially yours,NL\:ffRABBI NORMAN LAMMEncl---**Midstream***A Quarterly Jewish Review*December 1962Articles:* HERBERT WEINER – The Case for the Timorous Jew: Reflections on Church and State in America* LEO PFEFFER – Counterreflections on Church and State* SH. YIN'AM – Nehru — Portrait of a Neutralist* NISSIM REJWAN – Israel's Arab Citizens* HENRY KATZEW – Jews in the Land of Apartheid* RONALD S…
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Letter to Dr. Rabinowitz on Leak of Meeting with Cardinal Spellman (1963)

My Dear Dr. Rabinowitz: I just received this morning from Mrs. Max Stern your letter and the enclosed article you submitted for TRADITION. I do regret that we have not had the opportunity to communicate with each other as much as I would have liked to. Hence, as long as I am writing, let me be a bit elaborate, at least sufficiently to clear up certain misconceptions. You mention that you are in touch with my activities through the press, and hence are aware of my visit to the Cardinal with Rabbi Jakobovits. It seems, unfortunately, that in our mortal and imperfect society the impressions a man makes bear but little resemblance to the actual nature of his activities. The visit you speak of was quite innocuous. I was promised that not a word of it would be breathed to the public. Regretfully, and to my great disappointment it was "leaked" by a source whom I never would have suspected. Both Jakobovits and I were deeply distressed. The visit was magnified beyond all proportions. The report you refer to is, no doubt, the one contained in the Jewish Chronicle in the article by [redacted.] Her report is, to put it mildly false in all its main of truth la the fact of the visit. Everything else that she mentions is a complete and hair raising distortion. what complicates the injustice that she has done is the fact that I personally called her some weeks in advance of the articled appearance to inform her of the actual facts as they occurred. But the lady was so passionately interested in condemning Rabbi Jakobovits for a variety of reasons, all quite emotional, that I do not believe she paid attention to what I told her. fey I assure you, therefore, that the report was pernicious, and a conscious distortion and fabrication. I had considered writing to the Chronicle (I had even originally thought of action in the courts against Leo Pfeffer, the first source of these mendacities), but I thought the better of it. Experience has taught that the more you deny, the more the origi…
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