My dear Rabbi Lamm: Your friends cannot yet reconcile the fact that you are retiring as President of Yeshiva University. After all, there are some people who HaShem placed in working condition not to be retired, כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע especially when one performs a distinguished job such as you did. To leave and have all segments of the usually fragmented Jewish community praise your long tenure at YU is a truly remarkable feat. I feel that you can still contribute to the Jewish community in a most meaningful way. Now that my dear friend and distinguished colleague Rabbi Israel Miller has, unfortunately, retired from the post as President of the Claims Conference – may G-d grant him a refuah shlemah. This position is most important in its role of assisting the remnants of K’lal Yisroel. At the same time, this most vital position would not be one that would be over-taxing to you, that you may still have the time to do the things you wish to do at this juncture of your life. There is just no place for you to retire, for Chazal say: מנין דחיי חובה דחי מינה במזוני the one who gives life provides sustenance. Now this does not always apply just to the sustenance of the individual. At times it means the provision of sustenance that one receives to help others. It is this aspect that should guide you at these times of your critical decision-making period. May ה׳ יתן לך בריאות של שלום grant you a long, healthy life to share the sustenance you were granted with K’lal Yisroel. Best wishes and kindest personal regards, [Signature]

Dear Rabbi Bloom: I was very disappointed and distressed at the fact that Agudas Yisroel did not find it important enough to participate in the Pro-Israel demonstration which is taking place in Washington, D.C. today. The only memorable event of the black days that Jewry faced in the Holocaust years was the march to Washington, D.C., in which 200 rabonim participated. Although I was a very young man at the time, I recall the impact this march made on all the participants. And the answer given to the many who still ask the question: What did the Jewish People do then? — is this march.There are, tragically, very few other memories that can be recalled. Yes, there was the Agudah drive to raise funds. There were a few participants for this, including myself, who gave part of my livelihood. But what people recall is the Rabbis’ March.The enemy of today is not one that aims to destroy Israel alone. This enemy states continuously that it is out to, G-d forbid, kill every Jew. Is this not a cause big enough to merit our participation? What answer can I give to the question: Where were you at the time of the great crisis we are now facing?The fact that the organizers may not have been to our liking should not have canceled us out — just as it did not in the Rabbis’ March of the 1940s, when the march was organized by Hillel Cook and Ben Hecht. Still, the leading rabbis of that generation participated in that Rabbis’ March, including Rabbi Kalmanowitz, zt”l, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, zt”l, and the Melitzer Rebbe, zt”l.Be assured that I would be the last one to find fault with my Agudah. But this letter is meant to clarify what Chazal say: תורה היא וללמוד אני צריך.