Dear Norman, The merry-go-round has started. Newspaper interviews, radio interviews, T.V. interviews, luncheon meetings, supper meetings, committee meetings, receptions, greetings. It all adds up to talk, speech, talk, speech, etc. Me – 12½ to 15 pp. The worst of it is lack of sleep. Since Monday 5 AM NY to Wednesday midnight here I slept nothing. Since then I’ve averaged 5 hours. My usual problem in talking is to keep the audience awake, here I struggle to keep awake myself.

Dear Rabbi Lamm, ע"ש, Thanks for your kind letter of 7th December and I have now received, by ordinary mail, the reprints which you forwarded, which made very interesting reading, and if there are any others available, I would be pleased to have them. At present the timetable for the Appeals for next year is not finalised, so I cant tell you anything at this stage. On the other hand, there would perhaps be a possibility of a lecture tour within the framework of the Zionist Movement, during which you could lecture on all sorts of historical, educational and topical subjects. This could be planned during July-August, or towards the end of the year, and I would be pleased if I could have from you an indication of what you visualise your fee would be; as you know, cultural activity is always a 'step-child,' and finances are always limited for such a project, but if I had some such indication, I could then push the matter, and bring it forward in the right quarters.Mrs. Lamm joins me in sending her regards, and we hope that we will one day have the pleasure of seeing you on our shores, and the whole family will be looking forward to meeting you.Yours sincerely,Erwin Lamm

"Who Is a Jew?"ch: I trust that you received my cablegram informing you of the date of my arrival (my wife should arrive separately on the same day) and our expected date of departure from Australia. Our own travel plans on the way to Australia and on the return trip are still very uncertain especially because of financial considerations, i.e., each of us will incur a fare expense much higher than we anticipated. In addition to the titles I already sent you, I will be prepared to speak on the following themes:"Who Is a Jew?""Hassidism and Its Relevance Today""Why Should a Young Person Be Orthodox""Current Trends in American Orthodoxy""The Space Age and Judaism" (or: "Life in Other Worlds").In addition to the above, I would be prepared to speak on such subjects as שבת, כשרות, טהרת המשפחה. Do be kind enough to let me know in advance, if at all possible, what themes have been chosen for mv various lectures. Incidentally, I may want to use some of my spare time for my own work, and to that end I am taking along a number of microfilms. Do you think there will be any microfilm readers in nearby library? Is it possible to rent one of the new and rather small machines currently being produced? This is not crucial, but it could prove quite convenient to me.I trust that as time goes on we shall be getting more details from you, such as a firmer itinerary, including postal addresses so that my family and office will know where to reach me.All best wishes.Cordially,Rabbi Norman Lamm

My dear Rabbi Mandel: About two years ago, I gave a series of lectures at the Harry Fischel Institute in Jerusalem. At that time, I believe you were connected with the Institute. I may be mistaken, but that is my impression. At any rate, whether you are or are not the person I have in mind, I do hope you will permit me to impose upon you with a number of queries for information. Mrs. Lamm and I plan to spend about four weeks in Australia on a series of lectures this coming summer (winter for you). On our return trip, we were thinking of spending a week or ten days in New Zealand. We would want to leave Australia for New Zealand some time immediately after תשעה באב.Now, my question is whether you know of any strictly kosher people who are willing to accommodate travelers in Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch. Of course, we are willing to pay for all accommodations.This will considerably facilitate what we hope will be a brief motor tour through your country. In the event that kosher facilities in any or all of these communities, would you be kind enough to let me know if there are any hotels or motels nearby should we decide to spend a Shabbat in such community.Do let me hear from you as soon as possible, and many many thanks in advance for responding to me.Cordially,Rabbi Norman LammNL:cw

Dear Millie: The following is the itinerary I would like for my wife and myself. The westward portion is quite firm; the eastward or return portion is not. In other words, I may want to change the dates of our flights from Melbourne-Auckland and Auckland-New York. I assume we will be able to do that later on, especially since there is no difference in price. Our general trip is: New York-Honolulu-Nadi-Melbourne-Auckland-New York. We would like to leave New York for Honolulu on Sunday, July 8 (perhaps AA#151 direct, and PA#819 from Los Angeles). We would then like to spend Monday and part of Tuesday in Honolulu. (If there are flights from Honolulu-Nadi on early Tuesday, we will take them too). We would then like to fly to Nadi and stay there to Friday morning. I know there are two flights (QF and BA) leaving Nadi on Friday, July 13 for Melbourne, but they are abysmally early (5:20 and 5:30 A.M.) If nothing is available in the 7-9 A.M. range, I guess we will keep that.Now, as to the return trip, I am interested in the following, although (as I mentioned) there may be certain changes in dates.I would like for us to leave Melbourne for Auckland on Wednesday, August 8. If it is easier to get the two flights close to each other on Thursday, August 9, I will take that. If it has to be from Sydney to Auckland, I will take that too.We would then like to leave Auckland for New York on Thursday, August 16 or Monday, August 20. Please get the tickets for Monday, but let me know when we can catch flights on Thursday. (I believe there are direct flights by Pan-Am and others. I am also told that one of us can fly Auckland - Honolulu, via ANZ, arriving in Honolulu about 9:00 A.M., while the other flies to Fiji and then catches a QF to Honolulu, arriving about 9:30 A.M. From Honolulu we can catch flights, close to each other, to New York).I realize this is quite complicated as is. But if you ever have any choices, we prefer the jumbo jets to the others.I would also appreciate your …

Dear Rabbi Lamm, Very many thanks for both your letters of 30th April and 2nd May, which I received this morning. I apologize that I had not realized that you were coming from Fiji which is on the Australian side of the date line and therefore should not present any difficulties, except if one considers the alternate line opposite Jerusalem. Anyhow, we look forward to meeting you at the airport. Now we shall try to finalize your itinerary here, but we declare that if you feel like changing the flight to two days earlier, arriving here on the Friday, you are most cordially welcome, and we promise you, if desired, a restful Saturday at our home. Regarding your proposed departure, I regret to advise you that you may be in strife as you will only gain the day after your arrival at the first Yishuv (after crossing the date-line) Possibly you could give us that weekend and leave only on the Monday, 13th August, which would eliminate this difficulty.I regret that I am not conversant with micro film readers.Regarding the Rabbi in New Zealand, I shall make enquiries and advise you.Your new topics are challenging and will attract great Interest.Kind regards.Yours sincerely,

Dear Mrs. Weisberger, thank you very much for your letter of 31st May. We assume that Rabbi and Mrs. Lamm will prefer to stay in a motel rather than at private hospitality which is offered to them, and unless we hear from you to the contrary we shall make such arrangements, except for Friday night when we assume that Rabbi and Mrs. Lamm will accept private hospitality in order to be as close as possible to synagogues and places of Jewish activities. As soon as we get confirmation of the above, we shall advise you of the special phone numbers and addresses. Meanwhile, during business hours c/– the above and c/– 6 St. Aubins Avenue, Caulfield, Vic. 3161, phone number 52.5523 will suffice for contact points. We previously received biographical details of Rabbi Lamm and hope we will get some publicity next week in the Jewish press. However, notes of interest or short articles which you may have available would be appreciated so that additional publicity can be obtained. Kind regards, yours sincerely, H.A. Bachrach

Dear Rabbi Lamm, שליט"א, I was delighted to learn of your plan to visit New Zealand and am looking forward to welcoming you in Auckland on the 9th of August. Please, let me have your flight No. so that I can await you. Please accent a very sincere invitation to spend your 1st Shabbat with us. Both my Congregation and I would be deeply honoured if you were to occupy my pulpit on שבת נחמו. I booked you in at the Grafton Oaks Motor Lodge, which is about ten minutes walking distance from the Synagogue, for 3-4 days initially, commencing on August 9th. Hopefully this arrangement will be satisfactory.For your information I should like to give a brief description of N.Z. Jewry and the circumstances prevailing at present. We have here, in this Dominion, approximately 4000 Jews. About two thousand live in Auckland, slightly less in Wellington cca. 125 souls in Christchurch; 50-60 in Hastings-Napier, about 40 in Dunedin and a few families in Palmerston-North and Hamilton etc. To my knowledge – and I have been here since 31.8.1971 – there is not a single שומר שבת that attends my Synagogue and at present I could not partake of a cooked meal in the home of my congregants with the possible exception of 2 or 3.There is a butchery, the premises of which are sublet by the Congregation to a non-Jew. This butchery is subsidized by the Board of the Congregation to the tune of several thousand dollars, annually. This butcher sells the meat without supervision. He sells the whole beast including the unporged hind-quarters, and some people are under an illusion that this is כשר.When in Sydney at last year’s Ministers’ Assoc. Conference I took the opportunity to discuss this and related matters with the Sydney Beth Din, whose ruling was, that until they continue to sell hind-quarters I should under no circumstance buy from that butchery. In consequence I am constrained to buy my meat from the Wellington Kosher-Coop., several hundred miles away; and the butchery operation in Auckland witho…

My dear Rabbi Mandel: It was a genuine pleasure hearing from you and receiving your most gracious invitation, which my wife and I cordially accept. Your description of the condition of New Zealand Jewry is certainly depressing, and I can appreciate the tone of your letter. I have always felt that it is people such as yourself in the rabbinate who are manning the loneliest outposts of Jewry, and therefore deserve all the more credit than those of us who have the good fortune to be in the large centered. It will be my pleasure to preach in your congregation on Shabbat נחמו and to be your guest for that Shabbat. I do hope that we are not imposing upon you and your kind wife.In answer to your inquiry, I expect to be arriving in Auckland on Thursday, August 9 אי"ה, 12:45 P.M. aboard Quantas #850. My wife should be arriving the same day, at 3:15 P.M. aboard TE #222. I certainly do not want to inconvenience you, and therefore it will be more than adequate if you meet me at the airport at the later date, because I prefer to wait for my wife end greet her upon landing.Your description of the deplorable condition of kashrut in New Zealand certainly makes travel more difficult for observant Jews. Nevertheless, we are determined to do the best we can, and will attempt to survive on what little kosher processed food you have and what we can bring in with us from Australia. Our present intentions are to rent a car in Auckland from Sunday morning, August 12 and from there to visit Waitomo and Rotorua and from there proceed to Wellington. We there would like to leave the car and take the overnight ferry to Christchurch, and perhaps take the air excursions which I have read about.I wonder if you know how we can make provisions for kosher food were we to spend Shabbat in Christchurch or Wellington. If that is impossible, we shall try to be back in Auckland for the second Shabbat, because we expect to leave for the States on August 19 and 20 (my wife and I do not travel on the same a…

Dear Mr. Bachrach: After finishing the enclosed letter, Rabbi Lamm received your letter of June 14 and he has asked me to respond to you as follows: He will be pleased to accept the invitation of Rabbi Gutnick and the president of the Caulfield synagogue to occupy the pulpit on the Shabbat he will be spending at Caulfield. He does not believe it necessary to give a subject for his talk. Perhaps it would be just as well to announce that Dr. Lamm will preach the sermon, and leave it without a title.He accepts your suggestion to decline Rabbi Rapaport’s invitation to speak at his synagogue, and he will be delighted to accept the invitation to meet with all the Orthodox rabbis at lunchon on Monday, July 17.Rabbi Lamm asked me se send you his warmest regards.Sincerely,Miss Chanie Weisberger