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Many readers will know of the “caveman controversy”—the uproar that followed Rabbi Norman Lamm’s 1997 Yeshiva University Centennial address  invoking Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s cave to describe competing visions of Orthodox Judaism. The episode highlighted one of Rabbi Lamm’s lifelong preoccupations, namely, how Torah should live in tension with the modern world. The recently launched online Lamm Library , which preserves how Rabbi Lamm drew on the tale, reveals that his think

The launch of a new website dedicated to the legacy of Rabbi Dr Norman Lamm (1927–2020) invites us to recall the deep and sometimes unexpected bonds between this American rabbinic giant and the Jewish community of Britain. For decades, Rabbi Lamm – longtime president and chancellor of Yeshiva University, pulpit rabbi and prolific thinker – was a familiar and respected figure across the Atlantic, his name surfacing in communal conversations at pivotal moments, his friendships

Conversation 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. Th

In mid-century America, Orthodoxy was widely dismissed as a fading curiosity. The Conservative movement’s booming synagogues and popular Ramah camps projected vitality. By contrast, for many suburban Jews, Orthodoxy seemed like slavish adherence to outmoded forms of religion—a quaint, Old World relic. Being a “normal” American Jew meant joining a large Conservative or Reform congregation, not clinging to Yiddish-accented Orthodoxy. Rabbi Norman Lamm, then a young rabbi at Keh