Dear Rabbi Lamm: Please accept my thanks for the opportunity to converse with you some days ago. It was a particular pleasure to convey orally the happy decision of Gratz College to bestow an honorary doctorate upon you, and I do so now in writing. As you know, this accolade is the highest that any institution confers and all associated with Gratz would be honored by your acceptance. The doctorate would be awarded at a special inaugural convocation that is planned to recognize formally my assumption of the presidency of Gratz and is to take place, אי״ה, in the fall of 1999. In making your decision, I thought it might be useful for you to know more about Gratz. As I mentioned, Gratz College, founded in 1895, is the oldest independent, non-denominational college of Jewish studies in North America. Its faculty and students represent the full spectrum of Jewish life in America. As such, Gratz College serves as common ground for the meeting of Jews of diverse backgrounds and commitments. Gratz primarily provides graduate programs for students, including master’s degrees in Jewish education, Jewish communal service, Jewish music, and of course, Jewish studies. To further illustrate its activities, I am enclosing a variety of materials that describe not only Gratz’s college division, but also its Jewish community high school, the largest of its kind in the United States, its research library, and its substantial offerings in continuing education. Through its graduates, who occupy roles of leadership in Jewish education and communal life, the academy, and as בעלי בתים with accomplishments in the professions and business, Gratz has contributed substantially to Jewish life in the U.S. and Israel. I am convinced that it can play an even more significant role at this pivotal time in American Jewish history when institutions that once served as umbrellas under which halakhic and non-halakhic Jewish groups could confer no longer exist. As a place of Jewish learning and commitmen…