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

Mazar be included on the team, along with the members of the HUC-JIR
faculty and Albright. 260 The list excluded Frank Moore Cross, John Trever, and
David Noel Freedman—young scroll scholars closely tied to Albright but for
whom Orlinsky had limited scholarly respect. Glueck wanted Albright heavily
involved in the project and suggested to Orlinsky that Albright be consulted
on the membership of the committee before invitations be sent out. 261 Orlinsky
replied that he was not averse to having Albright vet the list but that he should
not be asked to recommend additional members: “I should not care to ask him
to submit additional names because we may well become loaded with young
second raters.” 262 Glueck did not wait for Orlinsky’s reply and by the end of
April had already written to and received a reply from Albright. The issue in
the committee’s makeup stemmed in large part from the fact that Orlinsky
and Sandmel were both highly skeptical of the work on the scrolls, and Blank
and Lewy were not active participants in the field. By contrast, Glueck aligned
himself with Albright and his students on scroll matters. Orlinsky’s preference
to keep Albright students out of the organizing created a rift between Orlinsky
and Glueck. Glueck, in fact, was concerned that Orlinsky’s direction could
negatively impact the quality of the symposium, as he noted to Albright:
I have decided to take this whole thing into my own hands to see to
it that it doesn’t get off track and comports with the highest possible
standards. Should we add the name of Frank Cross and/or the name of
[William] Brownlee? 263
Albright hoped that in formulating the committee correctly, with outside
members outnumbering inside members (HUC-JIR faculty), Glueck would
be able to get what he wanted without having to assert his authority over his
faculty directly. 264 According to Albright, at least, Orlinsky’s coordinating the
conference was troublesome:
I talked at some length with Harry Orlinsky … and he is now worried chiefly
(so he says) about how he is going to avert an open break with Zeitlin. He
has apparently come over at least two-thirds of the way, and is just not going
to admit changing his mind. Luckily for us, he has been publicly somewhat
neutral of late, so he can shift without any too obvious change. It might be
well to drop a private hint to the scholars whom you invite about this change
in Orlinsky’s attitude, since one or more may otherwise decline or abstain from
participation just because they don’t want to find themselves in an embarrassing
situation. (For instance, I had no intention of having anything to do
with the Symposium, because the announced membership of the committee
appeared to be stacked against the age and authenticity of the Scrolls; I have
now changed my mind.) 265
Optimistic, Even with the Negatives: HUC-JIR and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1993 • 41