Dear Rabbi Gotthold: I do hope that the matters I discussed with you are receiving their due attention. I have every confidence that this is the case. The two young men who met with you and me concerning the accommodation of Yeshiva University graduates in either the Gold or Greenberg Institutes wrote to me but failed to indicate their proper return addresses. The boys are [redacted]. Will you please tell them that I received their index cards and will try to do my best.Best wishes for a Chag Kasher V’SameachSincerely yours,Rabbi Norman Lamm

The other day you wrote me with some excitement about the problem of Canon Law at the Hebrew University. Let me give you what my inquiry shows. I also write you something about what they mean by the Canon Law Lectureship. The Rector of the Hebrew University stated categorically last week that there will be no chair in Canon Law at the Hebrew University. He further added that all academic programs at the Hebrew University, whether of teaching or research, cannot be decided upon by outside bodies (in this case, the Chicago people), but only by the faculties concerned and subsequently these decisions must be approved by the Senate and the Board of Governors. All that has been agreed to by the University is that a Visiting Lectureship in Canon Law is to be set up. From time to time, outstanding experts in this field will be invited to deliver lectures in Jerusalem on aspects of this subject. There will be no regular course for students or others. The University has several similar lectureships such as the Samuel Paley Lectures in American Culture and Civilization, and the Lionel Cohen Lectureship in Law. These visiting lectureships provide a very useful addition to the regular curricula of the University enabling the University to bring outstanding figures to Jerusalem periodically. A very important point which seems to have been confused due to some of the statements in various newspapers is on the nature of Canon Law. This is a specifically legal subject and is not concerned with the teaching of Catholicism as such. This is a discipline which belongs within the field of legal studies. It should be borne in mind, incidentally, that marriage, inheritance and other matters of personal law of the Catholic citizens of Israel are officially governed by Canon Law just as Rabbinic law governs the same areas for the Jewish citizens. If, for example, Notre Dame introduced a Lectureship in Talmudic law concerning marriage, inheritance, damages, criminal law, etc., it would not …

Dear Rabbi Lamm, This letter to you, a total stranger, was prompted by an article about you in the New York Times of 1 Feb., 1969. I turn to you because you seem to have wrestled with the New Morality and found at least part of your answer. We here at Georgetown have only begun to wrestle. I am a Resident Assistant on a dormitory floor of 45 freshmen, and these gentlemen regularly participate in the Intervisitation program which was put into effect last year. The Student Development staff, the House Councils, and the students are currently engaged in a review of this program. The students have overwhelmingly adopted the idea that what another does in his room is his own business. The arguments roughly approximate your statement about the "negative rule of not hurting anyone else." What is especially disturbing is that these are the same students who, in October, faithfully promised to allow the student community on each floor to operate as the conscience of the floor, following the general norms of society. This has plainly not been done. Having failed in exercising their stated responsibility, some of the New Moralists demand that they be given more responsibility. Indeed, all rules are now to be abolished if they have their way. One House Council is apparently pushing for a parietal program of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.I am especially perturbed because last year I was the instigator of the movement for Intervisitation. I now feel that I have fathered an immoral and irresponsible child. I would like to know what answer you would make to the student body as a whole. How can they be made aware that they are responsible for each other? The traditional teachings of the Catholic Church seem to have gone by the boards to a point that even the younger Jesuits, who are radically liberal, are disturbed.Your answer, if there can be any to strong wills attached to weak minds, will be appreciated. I, too, share your apprehension about the effect on society as a whole, bec…

Happy to congratulate you on presidency of supreme Torah center, Yeshivat Yitzhak Elchanan Yeshiva University. Confident you will succeed in continuing and advancing traditional learning and piety in this great Torah institution. Bracha Mitzion. Rabbi Menachem Kasher

התולה ארץ על בלימה ייטיב הכתיבה והחתימה לשנה טובה ומתוקה חיי אריכי ומזוני רווחי אל כבוד ידידי הרב ה״ג חרוץ ושנון וריח לו כלבנון חכמתו תאיר פניו כש״ת מו״ת נחום לאם שליט״א. שמעתי שמועת טובה וקול הזמיר נשמע בארצנו לעת מציא בשורת גדולתך. ישמח לבר גם אנוכי ביום ה״ לסדר ואהבך וברכך וברך פרי בטנך בא השמועות ביהעלוך יושבי ישיבות ה״ג ר׳ יצחק אלחנן זי״ע ושמו כסאם מכין לשבתך עלה והצלת יתן ה״ לך שם מאויי נפשך ובארץ שלום אתה בוטח

Dear Harav Lamm, שליט"א, please accept my most heartfelt good wishes on your appointment as president of Yeshiva University. We all recognize the enormous impact of Yeshiva on Yiddishkeit in our country. Your appointment encourages me, and I am sure, those who care for Yiddishkeit, to expect much growth as a major intellectual force. I know how committed you are to true Torah ideals.

Dear Professor Loebl, I am grateful to you for your warm and generous comments in your letter of October 15. I quite agree with your addendum to the thoughts I expressed in my article – the social sciences are indeed dominated by “natural science envy” in their attempt to act as if they were value-neutral, and your critique is quite trenchant. I very much enjoyed reading your article on “Moral Values and U.S. Policy” in the Spring 1986 edition of Strategic Review. I thank you again for your comments and wish you a very happy and healthful New Year. NL

Dear President Lamm: I was heartened and inspired by your recent article in The New York Times entitled "A Moral Mission for Colleges." You make a very telling point in a wonderfully articulate way and I commend you for your leadership in this important area. The whole matter of declining moral and ethical strength in public and private life, particularly as such a decline indicts educational practices, is a chief concern of mine. I am taking the liberty of enclosing a copy of a talk I gave at the National Press Club not long after the highly publicized A Nation at Risk was issued. Perhaps you will find it of at least passing interest. With best wishes, Jeffrey R. Holland

Dear Dr. Lamm: You are to be congratulated for your October 14th article on the moral mission of colleges. Your statement of the principles contained in your article was long overdue, and it was as clear and concise a message that I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. As the new Chairman of the Council of Governing Boards in New York State, I was particularly pleased to have the opportunity to reflect on your message and to circulate it to many of my fellow Trustees in the state. We hope to use your article and many of the thoughts contained therein as a foundation for some of the work that we hope to accomplish throughout the state in the years to come.Congratulations and best wishes.Sincerely yours,William F. Plunkett, Jr. WFP/td17 Elk StreetP.O. Box 7149Albany, NY 12224518/436

Dear President Lamm: I read your October 14 New York Times piece, "A Moral Mission for Colleges, with great interest. It was an exceptionally well-written piece, and one with which I disagree deeply. I have written a responding essay, "A Moral Mission for Colleges, 2nd Edition," which I am enclosing for your interest. I have submitted my thoughts to the Times (as well as to our local university paper.) However, regardless of whether it reaches that readership, I wanted to share them with you as well.Should you have any comments, I would be most happy to hear from you.SincerelyBrian G. Zack, M.D. University Physician(609) 452-4451BGZ:msA Moral Mission for Colleges, 2nd EditionBrian G. Zack, M.D.32 Stetson Way Princeton, NJ 98540 (609) 452-4451 - office (609) 924-6391 - homeNorman Lamm's essay, "A Moral Mission for Colleges" (The New York Times Op-Ed Page, Oct. 14) stands desperately in need of rebuttal. The eloquence of his pen and the depth of his feeling effectively disguise an argument which means nothing at best and which, at worst, is a call for moral indoctrination.Mr. Lamm asserts that today's universities are delinquent in not offering their students "moral guidance" and deplores their "permitting a generation of students to grow up as ethical illiterates and moral idiots." He maintains that universities should, and by implication currently don't, "encourage a moral climate that elicits respect for the human spirit," and solemnly declares that "knowledge ought to ripen into wisdom" and that "human beings... are certainly the purpose of education."In what sense is all this to be understood? The non-sectarian colleges and universities of today do not advocate a suspension of morality or teach disrespect for the human spirit. It would be exceedingly difficult to find an educator of any persuasion who felt that knowledge ought not to ripen into wisdom or that the purpose of education was anything but the elevation and enlightenment of human beings. At this level…