Norman Lamm
Image by Courtesy of Yeshiva University
Rabbi Norman Lamm’s retirement in June as Yeshiva University chancellor was overshadowed by his recent admission that for decades as Y.U. president he failed to report allegations of sexual abuse made against members of his staff. Rather than ignoring or glossing over his mistakes, Lamm, 85, led by example. In a publicly released retirement letter, Lamm made a heartfelt admission writing that, despite his best intentions, “I now recognize that I was wrong.”
Lamm’s retirement marked the end of a four-decade career at the head of Y.U. Beginning as president in 1976, Lamm navigated Modern Orthodoxy’s flagship institution through an economic crisis that almost saw the university go bankrupt. Once disaster was averted, Lamm focused on improving Y.U.’s academic standards at its undergraduate schools, Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women, including the launch of the first organized program for women’s Talmud study.
Lamm’s influence and the great admiration he earned place him second only to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the key intellectual figure of Modern Orthodoxy, as a guiding light of Y.U. A prolific author, Lamm’s books and essays on Jewish history, Jewish thought and Modern Orthodoxy have achieved influence beyond Y.U. and Modern Orthodoxy itself.
His contrition upon retirement marked Lamm not only as a man of character but also as a man who genuinely desires to, as Lamm put it, “contribute to the creation of a future that is safer for innocents, and more ethically and halakhically correct.”
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
