Dear Norman: This will confirm your appointment to the Chairmanship of the Campus and Torah Tour Commission, as I had the great pleasure to announce at last Wednesday evening’s first meeting of the newly elected Board of Directors. I hope to get together with you soon personally to discuss with you in detail the composition of your commission and its program for the ensuing administrative term. With warmest personal regards, I am Sincerely yours, Rabbi Joseph Karasick

Dear Joe: You recently received a rather long letter from a Mr. L. Carmell in London about trying to exploit the current hitorerut in a positive manner. I have never met him, but he certainly seems to be an active, efficient, and scholarly individual. I just received, this week, a complaint that his communications to you, to Dr. Weiss, and to Rabbi Kotler, have gone unanswered. It might be a good idea to reread his proposal and at least keep in contact with him. Best wishes for a happy year for all. Cordially yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm.

Dear Joe: I feel it only right that you be informed in advance of a position I shortly expect to embrace publicly. As Directors of the UOJCA, we are bound by the pro-Administration policy on Vietnam, as voted at our last national convention. Since that time, a great deal has happened to make me feel that I am not only out of sympathy with our official position, but that I am impelled by conscience to speak out against it. Moreover, I am deeply distressed by the raucous hawkishness of certain Orthodox organizations who have left the impression that a pro-Johnson position on Vietnam is another test of one's loyalty to Torah. I always was disdainful of those Reform and Conservative men who identified an anti-Vietnam policy with "Judaism," and I feel no less impatient with the primitive anti-Communism of certain Orthodox organizations that do just the reverse. I once believed that Vietnam was a political-military issue of such technical nature that we ordinary citizens could not hope to gather sufficient significant information to pass judgment intelligently on it. But obviously, Vietnam has now become the central moral issue of our times. One need not raise an anti-Johnson position on Vietnam to the level of a religious dogma in order to feel that the lives of all Americans are profoundly affected by the issue of Vietnam, and that this whole dirty mess is sucking all of us into it inexorably and irrevocably.The argument that a dovish statement by Jews on Vietnam will harm Israel’s case in Administration circles is unconvincing• If, during last June’s war, Israel would have needed military intervention by the U. S., it could not have received it because of American over-coamit-t»ent in Asia•For Orthodox leadership opposed to escalation in Vietnam to continue their silence is wrong on two counts. First, considering the dimensions of the problem, it is morally incumbent upon us to speak out without, at the same time, arrogating to our Vietnam position the authority of Ju…

Dear Rabbi Karasick: I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairman of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. The Conference, as you know, is composed of a number of organizations, one of which is the Orthodox Union. Representatives of the Union often appear at our meetings. (I might add that although I am considered as one of the people from the Union, I attend in a personal capacity because I am Chairman.) The Conference, which is New York Jewry’s only way of expressing itself on Soviet Jewry, does not have individual membership, nor does it possess any capacity for fund-raising. We rely completely upon the contribution made to our efforts by the participating organizations. To my chagrin, the Union is one of the very few major organizations that has contributed nothing so far in terms of money or significant use of personnel. Now, however, we are planning for a large demonstration called an Exodus March, which will take place on April 26th, Chol Ha-moed Pesach, from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. We hope to have the largest outpouring of New York Jewry that this city has ever seen on behalf of the Russian Jews. We are asking every organization, regardless of how much its ultimate annual contribution to this effort will be, to make an immediate outlay of $200 towards this affair alone. This amount will then be taken into consideration in determining what each organization will do for Russian Jewry on a regular, ongoing, annual basis. Please do be kind enough to let us have that amount at the earliest possible opportunity. At the same time, I would very much request of you to use all the Union’s channels of communication to advertise the Exodus March and so help us obtain that mass outpouring of people and sentiment that we expect and that Russian Jewry deserves of us. Cordially yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm

Dear Joe: I don't know if you received any reports about the Exodus March that took place on April 26th, but I am sure that if you inquire, you will be highly satisfied. I am chagrined to have to remind you (and I promise you this will be the last time) that despite all our pleas and entreaties, we still have not received the token sum that we requested from the UOJCA for the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, and which was promised to us. Cordially yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMMNL/ekcc:David Geller

Dear Rabbi Karasick, On behalf of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, I wish to thank you for your contribution of $200.00. Your assistance will help us continue our efforts to sensitize and mobilize public opinion in this country to the injustices being committed against our people in the Soviet Union. Thank you again. Sincerely, David Geller, Rabbi Norman Lamm, Coordinator, Chairman. cc: Rabbi Louis Ginsburg, Rabbi Elkanah Schwartz

Dear Joe: I am sorry that I have not had the chance to meet you personally in the week or so since I have returned from Israel. Let this, then, be my פרי פי to you – and to Dr. Weiss as well, since he is receiving a copy of this letter. Please do me the favor of reading this letter carefully, for I shall be very brief. If you want me to supplement it with any more information, you know that you are free to call on me. During the months I spent in Israel, there occurred the unhappy Ahalon affair. The problem set me thinking as to how we could carefully solve the problem of protecting the integrity of Shabbat and at the same time being considerate of all the demands of the non-observant Jews who, because of a six day week of labor, feels hemmed in and curbed by Sabbath restrictions. I developed an idea which I communicated to Zevulun Hammer, s the leader of the youth group of the N.R.P. I formulated it for him, gave him the background and rationale, he presented it as an amendment to one of the labor coalition meetings. Aloni, the Minister of Labor, was up in opposition to it, and insisted that it be removed from the agenda for discussion. However, Hammer and his group were able to combine forces with Menahem Porush and Menachem Persush from Agudah and the Knesset by 24–22. As of now, then, my Rosh Chodesh plan is in committee in the Knesset, and, if passed, can be amended through further discussion and discussion. I have refrained from elaborating on the nature of the plan, and refer you instead to the enclosed article in the Jerusalem Post which explains it at least in rudimentary fashion. It will also be published in Hebrew in the next edition of Hadoar, and possibly has already appeared in Haaretz. The religious newspapers, of course, have given it prominent display in their news items in Israel. I think that representations by the O.U.J.C.A. to the Prime Minister, and to the Israeli Ambassador to Washington, telling them that the Union heartily endorses the pla…