I. A) There are 2 kinds of wars that man fight and have taught since the dawn of history when Cain turned to his brother Abel and slew him. There is the manual sustained kind, the one that is carried out with a flourish, fought with loud and shiny weapons, that has as its aim the conquest of land and the spilling of blood, that is rallied about a flag, that deploys troops and brinks cities and is conducted by generals and chiefs of staff. B) This is the sort of war that all peoples have fought, some willingly and some with hesitation.

Dear Mr. Isaac: Thank you very much for sending me your heavily ironic article concerning the German sense of guilt. I enjoyed reading it very much – i.e., I enjoyed the literary quality whilst reacting with anguish at the content. My frank opinion is that the article should be circulated privately, but not printed. The reasons you give in your note to me are entirely correct. Irony is understood only by more intelligent people. Most individuals will simply fail to see your point and attribute to you ideas which are diametrically opposed to those you are really trying to enunciate.With all good wishes.Sincerely,Rabbi Norman Lamm

Another year has passed, another year added to the distance that separates us from the inferno – the Holocaust with which our century has been cursed. Again we remember, and again we experience the sharp, poignant agony of reliving the misery of millions of deaths, of recalling the glories of European Jewry that have now been reduced to only a memory in the hearts of those who still dare to remember. But painful as these memories may be, we cherish them. We assemble this day to strengthen ourselves and to strengthen each other in the determination that, in the words of the Book of Esther, “that their memories shall not pass from among their children.” We shall not forget the preciousness of the victims. We shall not forget the brutality of their executioners. We shall not forget, too, the criminal callousness of the onlookers. We gather once a year so that all of us together may brush off the heavy dust of forgetfulness, so that the footprints of beloved lives shall not be lost in the shifting sands of time. This service for the memory of the Czechoslovakian Jewish martyrs is held on the eve of a special Sabbath in Jewish life – Shabbat Zachor – “remember what Amalek did unto thee.” Amalek is the eternal symbol of the unreconstructed anti-Semite, the personification of all that is evil, degenerate, unredeemable, and inhuman in humanity. And we are commanded to remember him – and to blot him out ourselves. But more than zakhor, remember, is commanded machoh – to blot out the name of Amalek; in other words, we are to do something about Amalekism. We are told: do not be paralyzed into pious passivism – machoh as well as zakhor. But exactly how are we to offer this active tribute to the victims of Amalek? How are we to put into practice the injunction of zakhor? The Bible offers two answers. In Exodus we are told: “For I will blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens” – in other words, God will do the blotting, not man. In Deuteronomy we are told: “Thou shal…

Dear Rabbi Itamar: I have often thought of the fact that we in the Diaspora ought to emulate the synagogues in Israel in celebrating the Tenth of Tevet as a special day of memory for the martyrs of Europe. I would therefore very much appreciate your sending me whatever published material you may have on the origin of the custom and especially on special services, etc. If at all possible, I would like to institute the same custom in our Synagogue and perhaps in others in the United States. Please convey my fondest regards to all members of your family and to all our mutual friends.Sincerely,RABBI NORMAN LAMMNL\:ff

Dear Dr. Heller: Thank you for the photocopy of the article about Arendt which you sent me. I quite agree with you that the calumnies which she is spreading on campuses throughout the country are scandalous. Certainly, as you suggest, a group should get together to do something about it. I sympathize with your aims and want to help – although, because of my forthcoming trip to South Africa in February, please God, I shall be unable to take an active part in the foreseeable future. May God be with you in your endeavors to salvage the honor of the martyrs of our people against the onslaught of this embittered person. Sincerely, Rabbi Norman Lamm.

Dear Rabbi Lamm: You recently wrote me a letter in which you expressed your concern over the activities of German citizens in the armaments industry of the United Arab Republic. I would like to assure you that I not only appreciate your concern but that I, as well as my Government, share it. The Federal Government has declared in a statement on the 27th of March, 1963, that it condemns the participation of German citizens in the development and production of weapons in areas of tensions.Before I point out the efforts which the German Government has taken in this regard, I would like to clarify several facts which have been grossly distorted and exaggerated by newspapers and other reports:It is not true that German scientists in the UAR work on the development of nuclear, bacteriological, or chemical weapons. This has been confirmed by investigations made by the German Government as well as by the American Government. They take part, however, in the development and production of jet engines for airplanes and rockets.The number of German scientists working in the UAR has been very much exaggerated. There are hardly more than half a dozen of them; all the other Germans mentioned in this context are merely technicians and workmen.Not only German scientists and technicians but also nationals of other countries are involved in these projects.None of the German citizens in the UAR work there on behalf or with the acquiescence of the German Government, but they do so entirely on their own initiative. As I have already pointed out, the German Federal Government condemns their activities.It is true, however, that a number of German scientists and technicians are working in the UAR on the development and the production of modern weapons. I agree that — after the horrible events of the 1940s — it is particularly inappropriate for Germans to participate in the production of weapons which ultimately could be used to the disadvantage of the nation of Israel. This poses the questi…

To: Rabbi Jung. From: Sec. of Rabbi Lamm. This is the text of the telegram sent to German Ambassador Karl Hendrick Knappstein, German Consulate, 460 Park Ave., N.Y.C. (For your files). Most emphatically protest West Germany's surrender to Nasser blackmail. Your government is undoing all its previous efforts to restore your country to mankind's respect. Dr. Leo Jung, Norman Lamm, Rabbis of N.Y.C.

Orthodox Jews have generally taken a detached and unalarmed view toward the successive fads and fashions in contemporary apikorsut. But when such movements are sponsored by theologians, and are widely discussed in the daily press and in weekly news magazines, it is important to understand them and evaluate them in the light of the sacred sources of the Jewish tradition. A number of Christian theologians, climaxing a development that has been some years in the making in their circles, have put forth their ideas in a manner as shocking as it is honest, and as scandalous as it is forthright. Instead of clothing their atheism in artificial, long-winded, technical terminology, they have accepted the slogan first coined by a German philosopher of the last century: “God is dead.” The very blasphemousness of this impression explains why it makes such good copy for the pseudo-sophisticated weeklies, and tempts young professors of theology to break out of the stifling atmosphere of the ivory towers and into a breathtaking sensationalism. These theologians have made so much noise with their smart slogan that nowadays one expects to look for news of theology not in the Religion section of the press, but in the Obituary columns.Their criticism of the “old-fashioned religion"—especially if we seek to apply it to Judaism—is crude cari-cature, almost vulgar in its insinua-tions. They have set up a straw man and now knock it down. No intelli-gent Jew ever thought of G-d as a man with a long white beard who lives in a castle beyond the sun. No half-sophisticated human being who believed in G-d ever imagined Him as orbiting the globe in a space ship, somewhere out there.Any imputation of such primitive concepts to religious folk of ages past is merely a species of intellectual dishonesty.believe they are saying three things.First, they are preaching atheism, pure and simple. Second, they areasserting a form of deism. Tiiat is, they reject the idea of divine person-ality. They believ…

Last year it rained in Moscow on Simchat Torah. Nevertheless, thousands of young Jews and Jewesses were not deterred; they came and they sang and they danced for hours. We who have come this evening are determined to do no less. We shall not let the rain dampen our spirit, even if it drenches the flesh. I think you will agree with a bargain I am willing to strike with the Almighty: keep open the floodgates of Heaven and let it pour tonight – provided you also open wide the doors of Russia and let our fellow Jews stream out in their hundreds of thousands. Indeed that is precisely why aroused representatives of New York Jewry are here assembled under the auspices of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and its 34 constituent organizations. The adult organizations, together with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and other concerned youth groups, express their solidarity with Russian Jewry, and especially its reawakened youth. We are here to express three central themes: sorrow, solidarity, and protest. Unfortunately, there is much to be sorrowful about. Fifty years of Russian repression have taken their toll of this once magnificent, creative Jewish community of three million souls. Now, we do not want to indulge in exaggerations. Unlike the Soviet representatives who, in this complex of buildings of the United Nations, cheapen the coin of international rhetoric, debase civilized discourse, and desecrate the martyrdom of Hitler’s victims by comparing Israel’s so-called “atrocities” to the barbarous crimes of the Nazis, we shall not turn the tables and be guilty of the same vulgar extravagance. We acknowledge openly: Soviet repression of Judaism is not identical with or in any manner as severe as the Nazi oppression of Jews. What is the difference between them, between Nazi persecution and Russian repression? It is the difference between fire and ice, between burning and freezing. The Nazis burned Jews. Six million Jews were consumed in the flames of hatred, in …

Dear Rabbi Lamm: As I mentioned to you today on the telephone, the fact that Tisho Be'Av falls this year on Shabbat and observance is transferred to Sunday, August 1, reminds me that almost the same date combination existed in 1914, when Tisho Be'Av fell on Shabbat, August 1, the first day of World War I. In its catastrophic consequences for all of European Jewry during the following 30 years, this was the most tragic and fatefull Tisho Be'Av since the destruction of the Temple. The drama surrounding Germany's declaration of war on that day — the Kaiser's extreme resistance and his repeated and frantic efforts to avoid starting the conflict — is vividly described in the enclosed pages from Guns of August and Fall of the Dynasties. If you are interested, I will gladly send you copies of these two books. I thought you would also like to read the enclosed pages from an article on the Lehrhaus in Frankfurt, which appeared in the Yavneh Review, and which mentions a prophetic vision of Richard Koch, one of Rosenzweig's closest associates. With warm personal regards, Cordially, Jakob Michael