Description
Dr. Kalman recovers the fascinating story of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's involvement with the Dead Sea Scrolls from their discovery in 1948 until the early 1990s when they were first made accessible to all scholars and to the public. Scholars at HUC-JIR actively participated in efforts to acquire and preserve the manuscripts and played a significant part in breaking the monopoly of scholars initially assigned to publish them. Despite these activities, a number of HUC-JIR's influential teachers took a negative view of the scrolls. As a consequence, rabbinical students either did not encounter the material or left the institution with a view of it that was far from the mainstream. This book traces the activities of HUC-JIR's administration and faculty over five decades, the contribution they made to the new academic field, and their influence on how knowledge of the Dead Sea Scrolls was shared with the community at large. Many details about security negatives stored at HUC and about the bootleg reconstruction are revealed for the first time.
About the Author
Jason Kalman is Gottschalk-Slade Chair in Jewish Intellectual History and associate professor of classical Hebrew text and interpretation at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati and research fellow, University of the Free State, South Africa. He is coauthor with Jaqueline Du Toit of Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Book Information
ISBN 9780615703466
Author Jason Kalman
Format Paperback
Page Count 152
Imprint Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
Publisher Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 10mm