Dear Mr. Kagan: In accordance with the request contained in your letter of 10th December, enclosed here with please find an article by Rabbi Lamm to be included in the February issue of the Federation Chronicle. With kind regards, I am sincerely yours, Edith Kolko Sec’y to Rabbi Lamm/The Federation Chronicle, (member of audit bureau of circulation) 24, Raleigh Street, Yeoville, Johannesburg, 10th December, 1969. Dear Rabbi Lamm, The Fifth Biennial National Conference of the Federation of Synagogues of South Africa will be held in Johannesburg from the 12th March to the 15th March, 1970. To mark the occasion, the February issue of the Federation Chronicle will be devoted to the Conference.I should be grateful if you would let me have an article dealing with some problem which in your view should be dealt with by the Conference, or with some topical subject of contemporary Jewish interest.As we are going to press by the 15th February, I should be grateful if your article would reach me by not later than the 7th February next.With kindest regards,Yours sincerely,I. J. KaganExecutive Director---"The Role of the Synagogue Today"There are three conceptions of the function of a temple or a synagogue.The first is the common-sensical understanding, one which is most appealing to most of us in our social and cultural context. That is, that the synagogue is the source and origin of kedushah (sanctity) in the community. It is the provenance of spiritual values which radiate from the synagogue outwards. The synagogue, according to this understanding, is the wellspring of religious teaching for the entire community.The second conception is the classical Jewish view. It maintains that the synagogue must not be the cause or source of holiness, but the effect and the result of the kedushah of all the people.The Ramban points to this idea as the reason for the portion of Terumah, with its commandment to build the mishkan, coming after the portions of Yitro and Mishpatim, which speak…