Dear Dr. Lamm: Although we have met personally only once, at one of the institutes arranged by David Hartman, I have long been an admirer of your writings in both Tradition and Moment. The favorable impression I have gained from your writings has now been greatly reinforced by reading the draft of your “Centrist Orthodoxy.” Thank you for sending it to me. First of all, let me tell you that I like the spirit of ahavat Yisrael in which that pamphlet is written. I like the call for moderation and the cooling of tempers. And I like your way of defining Centrist Orthodoxy per genus et differentiam. The spirit of your presentation reminded me somewhat of the atmosphere of Torah im derekh eretz, in which I had been brought up in Berlin. Could I engage in some nit-picking arguments with what you have to say? I suppose I could. Right as you are in saying that “Torah Judaism” is a redundancy, “for what is Judaism if not Torah?,” I feel somewhat uneasy about having any one group within Judaism lay a monopolistic claim to that name. Granted that Conservative Judaism, for example, is subject to the kind of criticism you level against it, I would argue that, even within Conservative ranks, there have been – and are – some believers in, and practitioners of, “Torah Judaism.” And hard as those believers and practitioners may be to find within the organizational structure of Reform Judaism, I would argue that, if you look hard enough, you might find one or two even there. The recently deceased Rabbi William G. Braude z”l of Providence, Rhode Island, could certainly be considered as such. But then, I understand that it is in the nature of any orthodoxy to make monopolistic claims; and as long as such claims have to be made, it is better to hear them expressed with your kind of derekh eretz than hurled in the strident voice of self-righteousness. It is certainly kind of you to inquire whether you reported my opinions correctly. On the whole, you did, although in my JRJ article I did …