The American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume LXI 2009, Number 1

As is clear from the roster of visiting scholars, Dead Sea Scroll scholarship
on the Jerusalem campus was largely shaped by academics from outside HUC-
JIR. However, Michael Klein, who served as lecturer in Aramaic and rabbinics
(1973–1981), professor of biblical and targumic literature (1982–1988), and dean
of the Jerusalem campus (1988–2000), played a significant role in the College’s
activities regarding the scrolls in the period before the editorial monopoly was
broken (see below).
The overview here provides a discussion of those faculty who explicitly and
extensively contributed to scroll scholarship and teaching and those who deliberately
(often boisterously) avoided it. Numerous scholars on all the campuses
have, at various times, included discussion of the scrolls in their classes and
publications; it is simply not possible to include them all.
HUC-JIR in the First Decade Following the Discovery of the Scrolls
As is evident from the discussion of the conference
participation, Sonne and Orlinsky involved
themselves in the study of the scrolls from the time
they first appeared. However, their excitement about
the discoveries must be seen against a backdrop that
includes Ellis Rivkin and Samuel Sandmel. Rivkin,
who was mentored at Dropsie College by Zeitlin after
completing his doctorate at Johns Hopkins, today
continues to deny the antiquity of the scrolls. Sandmel,
who accepted their antiquity, simply and utterly denied
their importance.
Isaiah Sonne,
Cincinnati, 1946
(Courtesy American
Jewish Archives)
Isaiah Sonne (1887–1960)
Sonne, a Galician scholar who specialized in the
history of Italian Jewry and Hebrew literature and
bibliography, came to HUC in Cincinnati in 1940 as
a part of HUC’s refugee scholar program. 68 He was appointed librarian and
lecturer. From the collection of international newspaper articles he preserved in
Hebrew, English, and German, it is clear that he followed news of the scrolls’
discovery from their earliest appearance in the press. 69 Additionally, Sonne was
the first scholar at HUC-JIR to offer an official course on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
According to the HUC-JIR course catalogue for 1952–1953, in the spring
semester Sonne offered “History 12. Seminar. The Dead Sea Scrolls: An analytical
study of these newly discovered documents, especially the sectarian scrolls,
to determine their date as well as their historical purport.” At the time, only a
single graduate student, James Sanders, attended the class. Sanders would later
make his own major contributions to Dead Sea Scroll research, particularly as
the editor of the Psalms Scroll from Qumran Cave 11. 70 That only one graduate
student attended the course indicated a pattern that developed over the next
Optimistic, Even with the Negatives: HUC-JIR and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1993 • 11