Mindella “Mindy” Lamm, wife of Yeshiva University president emeritus, Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, has passed away.
“I often worried that those who are not part of our family only saw one extraordinary side of my grandmother, Mrs. Mindella Lamm as a public figure; the outside perspective; the regal, elegant matriarch she was in her own right, and the outstanding partner she was to my grandfather Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm,” wrote Teaneck’s yoetzet halacha Tova Warburg Sinensky, in a Facebook post.
Lamm was born in Midwood, Brooklyn, New York, and attended a Bais Yaakov school before majoring in education at Hunter College. After graduating she worked in the public school system in New York.
Her husband was chancellor of YU until his retirement in July 2013. A doctor of Jewish philosophy, he was the third president of the university and the first to be born in America.
Following meeting her husband, Lamm reportedly threw herself into life at the university.
Speaking to the YU’s Commentator she said, “Being involved with YU on so many levels was the experience of a lifetime. Before Dr. Lamm became president of YU, I was very involved in all of the chesed work of the Yeshiva University’s Women’s Organization. They do marvelous work and don’t get enough credit for the enormous chesed they do for students. Once Dr. Lamm became president, I assisted in every way I could. Those were both very tough times, but also times of great building and hope.”
The Lamms have four children: Dr. Chaye Warburg, Dr. Joshua Lamm, Shalom Lamm and Sara Lamm Dratch, z”l, who passed away in 2013.
As their children grew older, Lamm accompanied her husband as he traveled the world to meet dignitaries, visiting Egypt, London, Paris, Australia and Beijing during her husband’s presidency.
“We entertained in our home or at YU on behalf of Yeshiva and the entire Jewish world and were privileged to get to meet or know many extraordinary people—whether it was Abba Eban or Natan Sharansky, Yehuda Avner, Menachem Begin, Yitzchak Rabin, and many others,” she said once. “It was a tremendous privilege. But with all of the extraordinary people we met, including undergraduate faculty, roshei yeshiva and graduate school faculties and administrators, [the] students were always the highlight.”
Lamm “loved meeting Stern college students when I audited classes, which I did often,” she said.
A private burial took place on Friday, April 17. More than 800 people around the world tuned into her memorial service on Zoom and many more joined to view the memorial, now available on YouTube.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to hear about a woman who shaped who we all are, and who will continue to be a force in our lives and in the lives of our families forever,” wrote Sinensky. “Please email your memories to [email protected]
For those who missed the live memorial, find it [on YouTube] under Tribute to Mindy Lamm z”l.
By JPost staff with combined sources
