Letter from R. Joseph Lookstein about R. Lamm's Mentorship to Haskel Lookstein (1952)

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My dear Rabbi Lamm:

I am sending you herewith a cheque for $200 as a fee which I promised you for the instruction that you gave to Haskel over the summer.

I know how you feel about accepting this fee, but I want you to know how I feel about sending it to you. I would like to make it three times the amount, and even then it would not be adequate compensation for what you have done to and with Haskel. If it meant nothing else but that he came under your influence for eight weeks, that in itself would have been enough. If, in addition, he has received such expert instruction at your hands and if it enabled him, as indeed it did, to decide upon his life work, then you can well imagine how grateful I am for the share you have had in all of that.

Accept this not in the spirit of a fee but rather in the spirit of a gift given to one for whom I have genuine affection and for whose future welfare I have deep interest.

A happy holiday to you and to your family.

Very cordially yours,

Joseph H. Lookstein

Letter to R. Avrutick about R. Lamm's Appointment to OU Interreligious Activities Committee (1962)

Dear Abe: I shall be glad to accept your appointment to serve on the Committee of Inter-religious Activities of the U.O.J.C.A. Best wishes for a Gemar Tov. Sincerely, Rabbi Norman Lamm.

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Letter from R. Joseph Lookstein about R. Lamm Receiving Ph.D. (1966)

My dear Norman: I thought that I would see you at the luncheon after the graduation exercises. That would have afforded me an opportunity to congratulate you once again, but especially to extend congratulations to Mindy. I would like you to know that I took personal pride in your obtaining the Ph.D. Somehow I felt, not alone that one of my boys got it, but that rather one who is as dear to me as a son got it.I know that you will make your mark, not alone in the rabbinate, but in the realm of scholarship as well. Good luck to you, and please convey my greetings to your dear parents as well.With affectionate greetings,Joseph LooksteinJHL:cl

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Letter from R. Haskel Lookstein about "Some Thoughts on Leadership" (1998)

Dear Norman: I just received Some Thoughts on Leadership and I had to write with my reactions. What a majestic statement! You touched so many bases with sensitivity and elegance. I was moved by the entire speech, but particularly by your explanation of the need for compromise with its attendant principle of openness and ahavat Yisrael. The statement from the Kotzker Rebbe was so magnificently applied. The explanation of God’s handling of ernes was breathtaking. Finally, the application of the teshuva of the Terumas Ha-Deshen was so homiletically creative and practically decisive. “What holds true for a Sefer Torah must hold true for a Jewish neshama.” Simply brilliant! A Modern Orthodox leadership conference merits a highly significant statement about how we ought to function as Orthodox Jews. I so much admire your having presented that statement with eloquence and power. Very cordially yours, Haskel Lookstein. HL:ff.

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