Dear Mr. and Mrs. Kaufmann: It was with a great deal of joy that we read the announcement of the birth of Rachel Beth last November 25th. We hasten to express to you our belated, but truly genuine and deeply felt congratulations. May the Almighty grant that the two of you be blessed with undiminished joy, happiness, and pride in the young lady. And, just as her name is beautifully Biblical, so may you derive from her true Jewish "Nachas" as she grows up to a full human being and a full Jewess.I hope that your move to Massachusetts has been a felicitous one, and that your work is going well. I am anxiously looking forward to your next book, and I wish you great success in it.Please do let me hear from you.Very best regards from my wife,Cordially yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMM

Dear Mr. Kaufman, It was a real pleasure hearing from you after all this time. I hope you will believe me when I say that every Wednesday, when I lecture at the "Y", I think of those students I had in the past who gave me good reason to remember them – foremost amongst them, you. Naturally, I am quite pleased with the report you sent to me of your anonymous acquaintance who said such flattering things about me. The remarks made me feel good, not only because they are compliments, but because they justify all the effort that I put into my teaching. Whether I deserve them or not is quite another question.I have been wondering all this while since I last saw you about the progress on your new book. Interestingly, within the last four weeks, two authors of "best sellers" have called me to check out certain facts in new novels they are writing. Is your new book going to deal, in any way, with a Jewish theme or Jewish background? Whatever it is, I am looking forward to it with great expectation.Please give my very fondest regards to your wife, from both me and my own wife. We both remember with great fondness the evening the two of you spent with us at our home. Please do let me hear from you.Cordially yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMM

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I am sending the enclosed letter to the New York Times. Of course, I do not know if they will use it. However, I thought it would be of interest to you in any case. Please give Mrs. Lamm my best regards. I still remember my evening with your young couples’ group with the greatest pleasure. They were a most charming and congenial group. I suppose I am biased, but I always find among today’s young orthodox people a warmth and a genuineness that is not matched elsewhere. Sincerely, Myron S. Kaufmann

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I don’t know whether [redacted] has yet made your acquaintance, but he did tell me on one occasion that he had made a few visits to your office at Yeshiva University without finding anyone in. I know he wanted to thank you for the interest you showed in connection with his admission. He said he had put on his best clothes in order to make the best impression, but that your office was closed each time. He has had a few weekends at home during the year, and of course has come to our synagogue here each time. His enthusiasm for Yeshiva University and particularly for his Jewish studies has been an inspiration and a delight to many of us here. On one occasion he and a group of his friends went to have their own minyan for Musaf, apart from the main congregation, and he delivered a little sermon on that occasion, which it was my pleasure to hear.It had no connection to the week's portion, but it dealt with a bit of Rashi that he had lately studied in class and which had excited him so much that he was bursting to share it.The joy he takes in his studies is quite infectious. To see and hear this boy is to understand the reality of the statement that the study of Torah is a delight. It bubbles over irrepressibly.I understand that he has worked with groups of Jewish children around New York in the past several months, and that his enthusiasm has made him a very able young leader.His commitment seems as strong as ever. He has thoughts of studying for Semicha after he completes his undergraduate program, but is a little dismayed by the thought that he would then be a student until his late twenties, which seems to him a ripe old age. I have tried to encourage him to think more of the present for now and the tasks immediately at hand.He has made the Dean’s List at Yeshiva. His favorite course by far seems to be a course on Chumash with commentaries.I am very glad that he was admitted to Yeshiva. I hope also that his acquaintance with men like yourself will se…

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I have recently taken a few weeks off from work on novel #3 to do a political paperback on the Middle East. It will be out soon, and I will ask the publisher to send you a copy. It will be published by New American Library as one of the “Broadside” series. It will have the ominous title, The Coming Destruction of Israel. I have misgivings about permitting such a title to be used, even though the suggestion was originally mine. I have worried about its possible demoralizing effects, and also about the possibility of the phrase gaining a currency independent of the book’s contents. However, we perhaps all have a slight superstitious tendency to feel that discussing the name makes its realization more possible. However, the publishers have discussed the title at great length, and want it. I also have come to the conclusion that it is time to face the reality that Russia is determined to destroy Israel, and that the United States has not yet committed to the necessary counter-steps. My alarm over the danger to Israel has been growing for some time. You remember my last, or next to last, letter, when I sent you a copy, 15 months ago. Russia’s pursuit of the policy I then outlined, and American indecision in the face of it, has since then made the price of reversal much higher, and it by no means clear that the administration will pay that price. I think few Americans, Jewish or Gentile, clearly comprehend the magnitude of the peril that now threatens the continued existence of Israel and the lives of her people. I do not believe, heaven forbid, that the worst is inevitable. But I must conclude that it is very possible, and that the improved statements that have come recently from the President and from Mr. Sisco have not altered the basic realities. Therefore, my hope is that I will be proven the world’s worst prophet. My hope is that my forewarnings will help to prevent their own fulfillment, like Jonah’s prophecy against Nineveh. I don’t think I am b…

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I am enclosing a copy of My Broadside, and also an article I was asked to do for the North American Newspaper Alliance in connection with it. You must be in Israel by now. I envy you. I hope this package follows you there; I will try to affix postage enough to allow for overseas forwarding. Thank you for the three articles you sent me recently. I hope you will continue to include in your mailings whenever you have reprints of your talks or articles. Invariably they contain ideas which I find enlarging, which I am compelled to make my own, and which I would not want to have done without. Forgive me if I say also that your piece on Ecology, in particular, displays an excellence of literary style that I don’t remember noticing a few years ago. It may be that in the past I have been so immersed in considering the import of the content that I did not notice the style. But this article particularly joins a cutting edge and a light touch with serious indignation and concern in a most effective way. The secret, I think, is to write as you would speak. A point you make in your address on Education reminds me of a conversation I had recently in Sharon. Someone suggested that we propose in the Town Meeting that motorboats be banned from the lake, since its bathing beaches are one of the town’s most important attractions, and the accumulation of motor oil on the water’s surface is beginning to be a nuisance. It was pointed out that realistically such a proposal could not be voted through, since many residents have invested in places created out of boards which they moor in the lake. When I suggested that if the proposal failed, we propose as a compromise that the motorboats at least be banned on the Sabbath, my Jewish neighbors were unable to take me seriously. Sincerely, Myron S. Kaufmann

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I thought you might enjoy seeing a copy of the enclosed press release. It took months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, but with G-d’s help we began the first day of 5700 and have had the minyan every day since. There are many restrictions: each minyan must be arranged ahead, we are forbidden to look for a tenth man within the building, and certain individuals who would be glad to help us are forbidden to act at all. But, membership underlying, so far so good, and every week has brought all the greater matches because of the program’s very fragility. One man, a paralyzed engineer, has already decided that as soon as he is unparalyzed he will move to Sharon — as a result of our minyan. Warmest good wishes, Sincerely, Myron S. Kaufmann.

Dear Rabbi Lamm, Thank you for your letter, and for your good wishes for our minyan. After only two months, with G-d’s help, one new Orthodox family has already come into Sharon. We hope it will be the beginning of an influx. There are few places in eastern Massachusetts where a family of moderate means but with children in a non-urban environment will still have access to a halachic minyan. One of the tasks that will confront us for some months to come is continuing publicity at this early stage; many in Greater Boston know little and assume that there is an Orthodox minyan in Sharon, while others are waiting to see if the plant is hardy enough to take root. We spread word of our existence through weekly notices, word of mouth, and week-end guests. We have found, however, that a press release, such as the enclosed one which you saw as a press release and which appeared on the front page of the Jewish Advocate in Boston, is far more effective. I therefore feel it is very important in coming months to place follow-up releases in these same papers. Rabbi Louis Finkelstein of the Conservative Seminary, whose son-in-law was my college roommate and who has been a good friend to me over the years, has also written me a fine letter about our minyan and has consented to have this used if and when it is desirable. If I may, I ask to quote here the short release that I enclose with this letter. It is obvious that our growth will rest as much on the words of friends as on publicity of our making, and your words carry weight as President of Yeshiva and as a Conservative rabbi, both of great standing and both friends of our minyan’s members, is extraordinary good fortune at this time. May I have tentative permission to quote from your letter of May 3 in a news release, subject to my submitting a quotation and release of the release to you for your approval? The passages to quote are: “I took special delight in learning the unusual way in which you have managed to establish an …

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I was very pleased with the warmth and promptness of your reply. Rabbi Finkelstein replied that he has long maintained a policy of not commenting for the press on current matters, and that to make an exception now would set a precedent that might plague him in the future. He also points out, probably correctly, that to quote him might have an adverse effect – presumably by creating an ecumenical appearance which might please editors but did in fact trouble me. In any case I have consulted with the editor of the Advocate and have enclosed herein a draft of an article which I would like to send him at the end of this week, for publication in his issue of June 29. The article is based on your remarks alone. I have taken the liberty of quoting from your second letter, the one of June 8, also. The minyan continues to go well. It gives me nachas to make certain by telephone on Wednesday evening that we can count on eleven men the following Shabbos, and then have 16 appear. We have had to double our supply of siddurim. Meanwhile, I wonder if I may trouble you with a she’elah regarding our mechitza. The mechitza is portable, specially constructed for us, and we store it during the week in the temple’s furnace room. There is no question regarding its height, its degree of opaqueness, and the manner in which it divides the room, all of which were carefully worked out beforehand, nor is there any question regarding carrying it on Shabbat, since it remains within the building, nor any question regarding fastening (on Shabbat) a separate piece with hooks and eyes, since these are fastenings not of a permanent nature. There is, however, a question of whether by putting the mechitza in place on Shabbat, we would be putting in order for davening a room which is regularly used for davening, and whether making such a room acceptable for davening is work not permitted on Shabbat. Mr. Arnold has put this question to Rabbi Labovitz, who told him he was not certain and…

Dear Rabbi Lamm, The article in the Jewish Advocate was a great success, as you can see from the enclosed. I understand that it was picked up by the JTA and appeared also in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere. I have had many copies of the Boston article made, both for Orthodox families whom we contact, and for people in the Conservative temple in Sharon who are friendly to or potentially so. We are now going into our 20th week, and have not yet missed a minyan on Shabbat or Yom Tov. This “peaks” the opposition to us – as the existence of an Orthodox effort to establish and consolidate the administrative superiority and future viability in Sharon – apparently helped those opposed to us to be drawn out of the libel against Mr. Horowitz. Of course, it has had the side effect of stiffening the opposition, but we nevertheless consider it most significant progress. The results have been definite and promising, with Orthodox minyanim formed and with the large support of the Orthodox families from time to time, making it possible to know that the vital work of affinity in these families – and of direct indoctrination of the youth – are bearing results. Our job now is to find the prospects that we have been thus far successful in doing portions of the chinuchat themselves, and our resources are limited. I have no doubt that the project will succeed, and that in addition to bringing the nucleus of a community to Sharon we will also have a substantial effect on people elsewhere in Massachusetts. We bring to them not only people who are doing something for their Jewishness, but we bring them as well Torah. We have been learning the same sedarim as our minyanim and shuls, and some of the Sharon people have followed up by coming to the minyanim in Boston, and bringing their sons to the Talmud Torah. We are pleased with this, as it is an important step. We are also pleased with the fact that we can subsidize the students and yeshiva bochurim to come and help us. Our expenses …