Dear Abe: I wonder if you would be kind enough to send all material published by the Youth Bureau to Mr. Abraham Jhirad, Executive Director, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of India, c/o Magen Hasidim Synagogue, 8 Morland Road, Bombay 11, India. These people are trying valiantly to set up the Bombay community along the lines I have suggested to them during my visit over a year ago. I think the recent publication of "Youth Ideas" by Norman Linzer is particularly appropriate for them. Whatever you can send to them will be useful, and you will be performing a great "Mitzvah."Please be kind enough to do this for me. I would appreciate it, too, if the material could be sent Air Mail—if not everything, at least the publication on material request (“Youth Ideas”).My very best to your wife.Cordially yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMM

Dear Abe, It has come to my attention that Meyer Berglas might possibly be considered for leading the YHBCY Tour to Israel this coming summer. As I have told you orally a number of times, I consider Meyer a thoroughly responsible and superbly competent youth leader. In fact, he is the best I ever had. I have learned, in the short time I have known him in his capacity as Youth Director of the Jewish Center, to trust him as one who is utterly reliable in anything he undertakes.If it is at all possible to grant him this assignment, I would strongly recommend that this be done.Warmest personal regards.Sincerely,Rabbi Norman Lamm

Dear Ruth, I received regards from you and Max through our mutual friend Norman Lamm who came almost directly from the airport to participate in our Eastern TLS at Morasha last month. I was pleased to learn how happy you and Max are, and the contribution which you are making to the community. Knowing you as I do, I was not at all surprised by the news. The seminar season this year was a very satisfactory one, and although we are working with a curtailed staff and budget, three beautiful events were held in Seattle, Washington, Ennismore, Ontario and Camp Morasha. We have introduced a number of innovations to the seminar program: Chugim on contemporary issues, a Beth Medrosh for collegiates and a series of printed and illustrated sourcebooks for each of the study levels. Norman reported on his lecture tour and of the offer by Hans Bachrach to host a series of seminar programs in Australia next summer for high school students as well as a leadership training seminar and a university students seminar. He indicated that Mr. Bachrach was sufficiently interested in the seminar idea to invite a contingent of outstanding faculty and leaders for such a program. I have explored the idea preliminarily with a number of our top seminar people. They have expressed interest in the idea. Notwithstanding the huge amount of work involved in putting together and implementing such a program, we would conceivably be prepared to assist if we could get a clarification on a number of basic matters: 1) Is Mr. Bachrach serious about the idea and prepared to finance it? (transportation, accommodations for the staff and related expenses) 2) If the answer to the above is yes, would you be prepared to serve as our liaison person with the local community to help oversee arrangements regarding the seminar site(s), registration, materials etc.? 3) Would additional resources, particularly leadership, be available locally?

Dear Hillel, My first name is Hans or Abraham, and I guess we will be seeing each other soon. May I take the liberty of addressing you by your first name, and I hope you will do likewise. It was a particular pleasure to receive your handwritten letter from Chicago, where I hope you enjoyed being with your family. Your writing is clear and I hasten to answer your letter. The intensity of the seminars had been previously communicated to me, and we in Australia had all intentions of dividing the three weeks during which Shalom College is available into three parts. However, owing to difficulties with transport and owing to the fact that there may be great objections to Australian youngsters travelling each way for a full day just to spend four days in the seminar atmosphere, I telephoned Dr. Stern and, after submitting the problem to him, he agreed to reducing the number of seminars in the period to two longer ones. This may also be an advantage, as Australians may take longer to be emotionally involved and to work up enthusiasm.Taking into account various representations which I have received, I now wish to confirm to you that the first seminar will be exactly as you envisaged, except that the departure shall be moved to one day later. This will be balanced by the arrival of the next group one day later, giving you a full 48-hour break, which you requested. In addition, we have planned a full day's outing to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves, a round trip of 150–200 miles. We had thought of this taking place at the end of the seminar, but Ruthie Casin suggested that it may be better to break the seminar activities towards the middle. Please give us your advice and guidance.As the second seminar starts a day later, it will have to continue to Sunday, 21st, when there is no morning train but an evening train. This seminar can also be broken by possibly two day outings. A visit to a performance of the Opera for this group will be out because of the Three Weeks. Howev…

Dear Nans, It was a pleasure hearing from you both on the phone yesterday and by mail this morning. Since Sydney looks like the major site for seminars, I believe we should begin spelling out dates. After meeting with our contingent on Wednesday, I will be in a better position to inform you whether they can all leave the States on June 23. What happens beyond that and how you anticipate using the several weeks at Shalom College is rather unclear to me, since I am not privy to information about arrangements in Melbourne and what your plans are for Perth, Canberra, Auckland, etc.—and stopover plans. I would like to receive a proposed schedule from you.Among the titles for sessions which were discussed with Mr. Ranoschy were the following:* Reward & Punishment* Religion & Belief* Free Will* Challenges to Survival* Concepts of Rest and Relaxation* The Generation Gap* Revelation* Concepts of Repentance* Rationale of Observance* Courtship, Marriage & the Family* Love and Fear of God* \*Jewish Contributions to Society – Giving & Taking* Living by a Moral Code* The Sanctity of Life* Man & His Creator* Israel & the Nations* The Jew Relates to the Non-Jew* Classical Anti-SemitismThese were briefly discussed with Prof. Mono and his committee. They should adopt these titles for some of the subjects in the sourcebooks. Since I will be unable to communicate individually with faculty people, I would appreciate it if Bert reviewed these with his committee and they inform us of the study topics which may be appropriate for your day school and state school youngsters.Concerning your proposed slogans for Counterpoint, each is delightful. Have you discussed these with Arnold Both?I take it by now you have Rabbi Lamm’s statement on the importance of the forthcoming programs.In regard to further publicity, I have asked each of our staff people to make available a biographical sketch, photo, and lecture topics, which we will be mailing to you as soon as they are r…

Dear Norm, It was good meeting you on Monday to reminisce about 'Down Under.' Hans has been at it full blast since my departure. He seems to have gotten Ranoschy’s approval to send Forms 3, 4, & 5 to Seminar. The enclosed list was received from Yavneh. Would you be good enough to circle those items which you think worth including in the allotment ($750) which Scopus has made for books for Seminar? Thanks and best regards. Cordially,Dr. Abraham J. SternsteinDirector, Youth BureauAS\:bs---March 13, 1974Mr. Hans Bachrach1003 Howey Court234 Collins St.Melbourne 3000, AUSTRALIADear Hans, Jonathan & Ruth,I returned to the States physically exhausted but spiritually refreshed after the whirlwind trip to Sydney. Knowing, as you do, the hectic pace which Hans set for me in Melbourne, you can appreciate what it was like cramming almost all of the work which was accomplished in Melbourne in no fewer than ten days into the two days we had in Sydney.I imagine that Hans has reported to you in detail on our visits and meetings there. In essence, the enthusiasm for the Seminar idea—or should I say **Counterpoint 5734**—was as great in Sydney as in Melbourne.The days since my return and the perspective of distance have given me, I believe, a clearer picture of achievements and concerns, which I shall tackle individually below:### 1) Coordinating CommitteesI am enclosing, for your interest, a copy of:a) Coordinating Committee for Melbourneb) Sydney CommitteeI am confident that the Melbourne Committee, under your expert direction, will be able to achieve the broad objectives assigned to it. It appeared to me that the roles of the subcommittees were fairly clear and that, under your expert guidance, each of the areas requiring further assignment and clarification would receive direction from you. To wit:* Talila's role in maintaining liaison with advisory staff and in proposing recreational and evening activities* Arnold's work on publicity and promotion* Bert Kohn's restructu…

Dear Abe, I appreciate receipt of the two letters from Rabbi Lamm and his statement, for which I will thank him directly. Today I would like to advise that regarding travel arrangements, money may be saved by students traveling on our ticket, not together to one direction from the West Coast, but directly to their varied destinations, and travel proceed to Honolulu on Sunday, 23rd June. In this way no internal money expenses will be incurred by the Counsellors and Faculty and a lot of money will be saved by Yeshiva.As soon as I have confirmation of this and your travel wishes, I would exceedingly like to go ahead and make the bookings, particularly as some hotels are difficult to get for so large a group.As I have not received a reply from Rabbi Mandel from New Zealand, I today sent a copy of this letter to the Rabbi in Auckland to ascertain if his help can be enlisted.For your own information, I enclose a copy of Mr. Schruhm's statement. You will see copies of my letters to Mr. Nagley and Zeev Amit. From the letter you may have a number of copies that, depending on the size of the student seminar in Sydney, we may have other activities, particularly since possibly only 30-50 students may be attending, of Faculty and Madrichim available during that weekend.Bert Monde is now Chairman of the Education Committee of the Board of Deputies American and has arranged that the Board will tender a welcome to our visitors on Thursday, 27th June. This function will serve to meet leaders of the community as well as their partners from Australia.Kind regards,

Dear Rabbi Dr. Lamm and Mindy, Very many thanks for both your letters. We are glad to hear that you are satisfied with the report that you have received and take this opportunity to reciprocate the good wishes for Passover, but I guess we will be in touch with each other beforehand. Enclosed please find a copy of the letter which I wrote today to Abe which will keep you informed how things are going. The savings which will be achieved by my proposal may already go a good way towards the fee for the Y.U. which you had envisaged and I will give this matter further consideration. In your letter you invited me to make comments on the statement which you have prepared and I want you to know that I am delighted with it and have sent a number of copies out already. I feel, however, that it should be in the form of a letter to the Editor of the Australian Jewish News and the Australian Jewish Times, and for that reason I made a few suggestions. You will note that I'm playing a low key on our aims and I only try to stimulate the interest of the participants. Please look at my comments as suggestions only ans/,whatever your final letter to the Editor of both papers will be, we will do our utmost to see that it will be published in full, which I suggest you also suggest in your letter as a postscript.Kind regards,

By the time this letter arrives I hope you will have enjoyed the Sedarim – and well-earned rest. Meanwhile, we have been rushing things here a lot and I enclose (Prehscar broke) the first copies of the booklet which we have just produced. The symbol 'CP' naturally stands for Counterpoint and the lines indicate ideas which are flowing to and fro as they shall be at the many discussion groups which we are going to have. You will also notice that our motto is engraved on it. It shows that life is precious and the pre-requisite to the carrying out of the tasks ahead. It urges us to make His way our way.It also reminds me of one of the speeches of Rabbi Lamm where he points out that whilst the making of images of God is strictly prohibited, He made us and established us in His image. Our life has to be a reflection of His ideals.By our life we have to show and bear witness to His creation, and through our life we have to aim at realizing His teachings. Only when we value our life and enjoy it with vigour and strength can we carry out the above ideals and serve Him in joy.We are positively instructed to rejoice. We are told not the dead can carry out the tasks, always pointing to the sacredness of life.In the legal prescript, we are directed to push commandments aside to heal the sick. During the Holocaust this principle enabled some to survive and bear witness to that dark period and to thank God for the deliverance and the establishment of our State of Israel.The above is not explained in the leaflet as it has been pointed out that it would be much better to lift the people up to this understanding during the seminars.Continue to enjoy the rest of Passover.Greetings,

Dear Norman: Thanks for the note and copy of telegram. Meanwhile you must have received my letter and I trust that you now have a fuller understanding of the issue. The Australian staff will be meeting at the Stern College Dormitory lounge on Monday, May 20th at 7:30 P.M. Would it be possible for you to join us? Kindest regards, Dr. Abraham Stern, Director Youth Bureau