Preserving the Legacy of Rabbi Norman Lamm
Originally published at https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/preserving-the-legacy-of-rabbi-norman-lamm/2025/09/15/.
Conversation with Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Sinensky on the Launch of the Rabbi Norman Lamm Archives
Q: What inspired the creation of the Rabbi Norman Lamm Archives, and why now? A: Rabbi Lamm kept almost everything. When we began, we realized the sermons were just the tip of the iceberg – his personal collection held over 200,000 pages of material. We decided to start with 5,500 sermons, essays, and letters, which was more than enough to launch, while knowing there’s still so much more waiting to be explored. The timing felt right because the community needs his voice now more than ever.
Q: When you say “just the tip of the iceberg,” what does the archive actually include? A: The archive currently features around 800 sermons from his pulpit years, over 3,500 pieces of correspondence, and hundreds of essays, speeches, and unpublished manuscripts. We’re also working to make entire books freely available online, with typed and downloadable versions, so people can engage both with his major works and his everyday writings. And that’s only part of the picture – we’re still processing much more. Making all of this accessible online ensures his teachings can continue to guide and inspire Jews everywhere.
Q: Rabbi Lamm is perhaps best known for giving voice to the ideal of Torah u’Madda. How does the archive reflect his approach to that idea? A: You can trace his engagement with Torah u’Madda across his life. Already in 1944–45, during the gap year he took between Torah Vodaas High School and Yeshiva College – a choice that wasn’t entirely typical, though more common at the time – he split his days between Torah Vodaas in the mornings, studying with his grandfather Rav Yehoshua Baumol in the afternoons, and reading Plato, Aristotle, and Freud in the Williamsburg public library at night. At Yeshiva College, he majored in chemistry, which reflected his serious embrace of science alongside Torah learning. Soon after, he joined the Association for Orthodox Jewish Scientists and even wrote an early halakhic paper on incandescent light bulbs and Shabbat. His close relationship with Rabbi Moshe Tendler further shaped his commitment to bringing Torah into conversation with science and medicine. By 1992, we find in the archives that he was addressing the Higayon Conference on Torah u’Madda, articulating the concept more explicitly as president of YU. But what’s fascinating is that in nearly 800 sermons as a pulpit rabbi, he never once mentioned the phrase Torah u’Madda, and only rarely referred to Centrist or Modern Orthodoxy. That wasn’t because he hadn’t yet developed the idea – it was because he saw his role differently. In the pulpit, his mission was strengthening Torah Judaism on the ground; in the university presidency, his role was to define and defend a larger ideological vision.
Q: Beyond ideas, what do the letters and correspondence reveal about him as a person? A: They show both his extraordinary humanity and his activist streak. On one side, you have something like a letter he wrote to a little girl in his congregation who had lost her pet bird – he turned it into a gentle lesson about memory and care. On the other, you see a leader constantly pressing forward: writing El Al to demand higher hospitality standards so the airline would create a kiddush Hashem, urging Senator Javits to speak on behalf of a day school in Springfield – a request that yielded a speech, a large check, and an irked senator – sending sharp letters to community leaders insisting they support Jewish education, and even leaving his first pulpit after the community leadership refused to build a day school.
Q: Were there discoveries in the collection that surprised even you? A: Absolutely. One of the most fascinating sets of documents is from his trip to India in the 1960s. In Bombay, Calcutta, and Cochin, he lectured extensively, advised on mikvah construction and proper halakhic burial practices, and advocated on behalf of the communities’ halakhic status in correspondence with Israel’s then–Chief Rabbis Unterman and Nissim. The letters show him not just visiting, but really immersing himself in their challenges and seeking to support them with halakhic authority. It was an unusually expansive vision for an American rabbi at the time.
Q: You’ve mentioned his correspondence with Senator Javits. More broadly, which personalities show up in the archive? A: The letters read like a who’s who of Jewish and public life in the second half of the 20th century. You’ll find exchanges with his rebbe Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rav Moshe Feinstein, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits of Great Britain, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Rav Yehuda Amital, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Dr. Eliezer Berkovits, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Rav Mordechai Gifter, and multiple prime ministers of Israel. The correspondence also includes major communal leaders, academics, and public figures. It places Rabbi Lamm right in the middle of the debates and networks that shaped Jewish life across the globe.
Q: He was also no stranger to controversy. Does that come through in the materials? A: Very much so. You see him grappling with Orthodoxy’s relationship with non-Orthodox denominations, the politics of conversion in Israel, tensions with Agudath Israel, and debates around Zionism and American Jewish identity. And it started early: as far back as 1953, when he was just 25 years old and beginning his career, he was attacked mercilessly for his positions. He even received vicious antisemitic hate mail – which, of course, he kept. Later, he corresponded candidly about tensions with other Orthodox leaders, about the role of Yeshiva University in public life, and about criticisms of his Centrist Orthodox vision. He confronted controversy with respect and humility, but also with conviction – a reminder that machloket l’shem shamayim is not just a rabbinic ideal but a realistic vision for our community.
Q: Organizing all of this sounds like a daunting process. What did it take to bring the archive to life? A: It was a massive, multi-year effort involving Yeshiva University, the Lamm family, and a team of dedicated interns. We scanned, OCR’d, edited, catalogued, and tagged thousands of items. It was painstaking, but now everything is searchable and organized for public use. The effort reflects our conviction that Rabbi Lamm’s legacy must not sit on a shelf – it has to be a living resource for the community.
Q: And on a personal level – you’re Rabbi Lamm’s grandson-in-law. How has that shaped your approach? A: Honestly, I only really got to know him personally toward the twilight of his career. By then, he was no longer in the public spotlight, and that allowed me to see him less as a public figure and more as a grandfather. Working on the archives has been a way of rediscovering him: connecting the younger, dynamic Rabbi Lamm of the sermons and letters with the man I knew later in life. It’s been humbling and deeply meaningful, and it has reinforced how much his model of leadership can still guide us today.
Q: Who do you hope will use the archive? A: Everyone. Scholars, rabbis, students, laypeople – anyone who cares about Torah and Jewish life. That’s why we settled on an online archive, to make it broadly accessible. Rabbi Lamm believed Torah should be shared as widely as possible, and making this digital ensures that can happen. In an age when Jewish communities can feel fragmented, accessibility is a way of strengthening our shared conversation.
Q: What kinds of opportunities do you see for people drawing on the collection? A: The possibilities are enormous. A Tanach teacher can use not only his sermons but his numerous shiurim on topics in Tanach. He also produced important essays on halakhic and lomdish topics, and it goes without saying that the archive is a treasure trove on Jewish thought, from medieval philosophy to Chasidic and Mitnagdic traditions. Educators in almost any humanities discipline can use it. A Jewish history teacher can bring in his correspondence with President Kennedy, including his eulogy of President Kennedy. An English teacher can have students analyze the differences between his mastery of spoken and written English. Rabbis and laypeople can continue to mine his divrei Torah for inspiration. Journalists will find records of communal debates, from the Soviet Jewry movement to eruv controversies. And communal leaders can look at his letters about day schools as a model for principled advocacy.
Q: Do you have a favorite sermon that captures who he was? A: One that always strikes me is A Piece of Peace, delivered at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War – right around this time of year. Reading it now, it could just as easily have been delivered yesterday. It’s timeless Torah applied to the most searing issues of conflict and reconciliation. Especially after October 7, it resonates deeply. Rav Yehuda Amital once told the story of reading a sermon a student had given him and being amazed – only to discover it was actually Rabbi Lamm’s words from decades earlier. I hear that all the time – people find his sermons and feel they are as fresh and urgent now as when he delivered them.
Q: Looking ahead, how do you hope the archive will influence Jewish life in the future? A: My hope is that it provides a living model of how to think as a Jew in the modern world – with seriousness, humility, and courage. At a time when polarization is so common, Rabbi Lamm’s example of intellectual openness grounded in halakhic commitment feels like a guiding light. And just as importantly, it offers us a new model for how to memorialize a great brother, uncle, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather – not by leaving his work on a shelf, but by bringing it to life for future generations.
Q: Finally – what’s next? Are there more projects on the horizon? A: Yes – this is really just the beginning. We already have audio and video materials available, though there’s still a great deal more to work through. And there are countless documents still in his collection at Yeshiva University that we haven’t yet touched. So stay tuned – the archive is not a finished product but an ongoing project that will continue to grow.
Q: Where can people go to learn more? A: We’re on Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn – but above all, at the website, lammlegacy.org.