Dear Shmaryahu, Just a quick note to tell you how happy I am to have gotten to know you and your wife during our brief stay in Geneva. It was, as I mentioned to you, the one definitely positive result – indeed, the high point – of my participation in the "consultation." I've called our New York people to report briefly on what happened, and I assume you and they will be in contact too. Please give my very best regards to Mrs. Talmon. I do hope you will call me during your next visit to New York, which I trust will take place soon.Cordially,RABBI NORMAN LAMM

Dear Shmaryahu: I trust that you and your wife are well and have spent a pleasant holiday season. Within the next few weeks I hope to begin working on the paper that was assigned to me for the forthcoming conference in December. However, my method is to begin worrying about a month or two before I begin working. My worry now focuses on exactly what is expected of me. I am writing to you first, in the hope that you can refresh my memory as to the contexts of our conversation in Geneva, and second to find out what you are planning so that we can possibly coordinate our efforts as to style and extent.Now, the first question: were our papers expected to represent a consensus for both groups or just a proposal for the Jewish group? I am almost certain the answer is the latter, but I want to be sure.Second, is this to be a scholarly paper with documentation, etc., or an attempt at phrasing a proposal that, while it may emerge from research, will in itself be rather simple and straightforward?Furthermore, about how long do you expect your paper to be?I have not heard yet from any of our friends, either here or in Geneva, as to where we are expected to meet in December, but wherever it is, I certainly look forward to renewing our friendship when we meet again.Do let me hear from you, and please convey warmest good wishes from my wife and myself to your wife and to you.Cordially,RABBI NORMAN LAMMNL:

Dear Norman, I have just sent off my little piece to Henry Siegman. Luckily I found a friend who was leaving this morning for New York, so that my paper will be late by only about two or three days. I have asked Henry to xerox the typescript and forward copies to you, Lou and Foxman, and all others who may be concerned. I have sent copies directly to Uri Tal and Werblowsky. The length of the paper is a compromise between your own ideas about it and mine. It runs to down about ten pages, half of which are in the nature of discourse, and the other half constitutes what I would consider the basis for the final more elaborate presentation. As I said in my letter to Henry, I organized the paper in such a way that it leads directly to the issue of “Communities” which will be dealt with by Uri Tal. Uri and I had a long conversation in which I, hopefully, succeeded in making him understand the set-up of our deliberations in Geneva. He had planned a rather fully fledged discussion of the issue which would have gone far beyond the limits of what can be accommodated in the frame of that meeting. I understand that Lou intends to append a piece of his own to my paper in which he will discuss the question of “Universality and Particularity” in modern Christian theology against the background of Niebuhr’s philosophy. I have just touched upon the subject, since I could not refrain from some comparison, although initially I had intended to keep strictly to a presentation of the, or a, Jewish view. I do not intend to go on to Marseilles either. I understand that this is not required of us since the meeting with the Vatican will be of a different nature altogether. I look forward to meeting you again in Geneva. I plan to arrive possibly already on Wednesday or Thursday, to take a breather before we begin our meetings. I wrote to Henry saying that I doubt whether we should again be put up in the Hotel Du Rhone. It is too expensive for my taste, and I wonder whether public money shoul…