Dear Rabbi Lamm: I hope this letter finds you well. This week’s Forward carries a story about the recent New York Court of Appeals ruling in the lesbian housing lawsuit case. Their reporter spoke to me at length before writing the story, but mangled my comments. I have accordingly written a letter to the editor clarifying what I said, and I take the liberty of sharing an advance copy with you. I hope you understand that my comments are intended in a constructive vein. I really think this is an opportune moment for Yeshiva University to make a serious cheshbon hanefesh. All good wishes. Respectfully, David Zwiebel Executive Vice President for Government and Public Affairs DZ/sk EnclosureEditor: Your report on the New York Court of Appeals’ reinstatement of the lawsuit by two lesbian students challenging Yeshiva University’s student housing policy (“Gay Housing Suit Poses Dilemma for Yeshiva U.”, July 13) confuses the context of my comment that recent court decisions would appear to permit government funding of religious schools, even those that are “pervasively sectarian,” so long as the government funds are used for secular purposes. Please permit me to clarify. Under New York law, the state’s anti-discrimination provisions do not preclude a religious organization from “taking such action as is calculated by such organization to promote the religious principles for which it is established or maintained.” However, over 30 years ago, Yeshiva University decided to structure itself as a non-sectarian secular institution, despite its Orthodox Jewish roots and affiliation – in part, as your story notes, in order to be eligible for various streams of government funding not available to religious entities. Given that structure, it is not clear to me – and obviously was not clear to Yeshiva’s attorneys – that the university could have availed itself of a religious freedom defense of its housing policy. The better legal strategy in responding to the lesbians’ lawsuit was to …

Dear Rabbi Lamm: I hope this letter finds you well. Upon my return this week from a brief visit to Eretz Yisroel, I found several clippings in my in-box (from the New York Times and the Anglo-Jewish weeklies) relating to last week’s visit to the beis medrash of Yeshiva University by several visiting Catholic priests. I also heard from one of our constituents that you were on Zev Brenner’s radio program on Motzoei Shabbos to discuss this matter, and that there was some talk between the two of you about how this interaction with Catholic religious leaders was of a kind with the types of interactions that Rabbi Moshe Sherer, z”l (and Agudath Israel of America still has today) with the Catholic Church. Not having heard the radio program, and not being familiar with the background of last week’s visit beyond what I read in the clippings, perhaps there are some additional details that would help me understand this better. However, having had the honor of serving at Rabbi Sherer’s right hand for the last fourteen years of his life, and having the responsibility today on behalf of our organization to work with the Catholic leadership on a variety of issues, I must respectfully tell you that last week’s event strikes me as a giant step removed from what Agudath Israel of America has been doing with the Catholics over the years. Yes, we do work with the Catholic Church behind the scenes on matters of mutual concern, and enjoy good professional (and on occasion even personal) relationships with some of their leaders. However, to the best of my knowledge, we have never participated in a public event of the nature that occurred last week at Yeshiva University. Indeed, I recall instances when Rabbi Sherer specifically declined invitations from Cardinal O’Connor to join together publicly, notwithstanding the worthiness of the cause to which the invitation was attached. As a general rule, such public undertakings would be inconsistent with the guidelines we have received from our…