By the Grace of G-d 24th of Teves, 5726 Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dr. . . .
Rockaway, Pk., N.Y. 11694
Greeting and Blessing:
This is to acknowledge with thanks receipt of your recently published essays. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, and I trust that you will continue to send me your publications in the future.
You are no doubt already used to my reactions, particularly in regard to the question of college education and its influence upon our Jewish youth, which we discussed during our personal meeting. At that time, as I remember, you were strongly in favor of college education. However, I rather hope that you have modified your view in light of the research and surveys which have been carried on in this field. These have brought into relief the tragic and far reaching influence of the college environment upon young men and women in general, and especially upon those who dorm at the campuses. Not only has this negative influence been established insofar as weakening the attachment of our young men and women to our tradition and heritage, but also in the undermining of basic moral principles down to promiscuity.
It would seem only right that those who favored or encouraged college education for our Jewish youth, should consider it their sacred duty to make known their revised attitude towards this problem in the light of the information and data which the above mentioned surveys have supplied. Moreover, the publication of such a revised, or at any rate modified, view should be in a way that it would reach all those circles where the original view had reached.
I am, of course, fully aware of the argument - what is the use of fighting a losing battle? However, apart from the fact that I am not quite so sure that a Jew should not fight a losing battle, we have our definite stand of our Torah in such a case that, “Saving even one soul is like saving a whole world,”1 I am certain that even though the odds are generally against winning over the majority opinion, many more souls than one can be saved. This is particularly true if such a voice as yours could be heard, in view of your influence.
I trust the above few lines will suffice, though this is a matter which should be discussed at greater length and even in stronger terms.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
1) Sanhedrin 37a.
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 3 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2016), 72.
Note: Letters printed in "The Letter and the Spirit" are from the archives of Rabbi Nissan Mindel A"H, the Rebbe's personal secretary entrusted with writing up the Rebbe's orally dictated responses. The “Nissan Mindel Archives” are comprised of secretarial copies, including first drafts, and may have subsequently been published with editorial changes. Therefore the letters as they appear in the book may not be the final signed version.