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

areas as archaeology, linguistics, biblical textual criticism, rabbinic analysis,
palaeography, messianism, and the “teacher of Righteousness.” 273 For various
reasons, this grand symposium had to be cancelled.…
This afternoon’s Symposium [at Dropsie College] is the first in the world in
which the Scrolls will be discussed from A to Z, beginning with Prof. Albright
and ending with Prof. Zeitlin. 274
The conference could have brought HUC-JIR tremendous attention, but it was
not to be. 275 At the very least, the effort to bring it about highlights Glueck’s
interest in the scrolls and his attempt to put the College at the forefront of
their scholarship.
In truth, since Jewish scholars were kept from the editorial team for the
documents found in Cave 4, the faculty could not have access to the material
and so was not involved directly in editing and studying the manuscripts.
As early as 1956 or 1957 Sandmel had concerns about access to the
unpublished materials:
Certain people working in the Scrolls, however, have been able to inform me
that John [the Baptist] when a youth belonged to the Essenes; one scholar even
suggested that the Essenes may have adopted John when he was a boy. Now
this may be only speculation—or it may be based, as we have occasionally
[been] assured in the past, on Scrolls materials which some have seen but
which have not been published yet!” 276
The conference could have generated an opportunity for a Jewish institution
and its scholars to participate in the process of studying the material, despite
the issue of access.
Norman Golb
Cincinnati,
May 1962
(©The American
Israelite, reprinted
with permission)
Norman Golb (b. 1928)
At the same time as the conference plans were coming
undone, Glueck made a move to hire a replacement
for Isaiah Sonne. In his place he hired Norman Golb,
who taught at the College in Cincinnati from 1958 until
1963, when he took up an appointment at the University
of Chicago, where he continues to teach. According to
Golb the two men met in Israel in 1956 while Golb was a
Warburg fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 277
Golb earned his doctorate with Albright at Johns Hopkins
in 1954 with a dissertation titled, “The Cairo Damascus
Covenant and Karaite Literature.” During 1957–1958 he
served as visiting lecturer in Hebrew and Semitic studies
at the University of Wisconsin. During that time he
published his first academic articles on the scrolls. The
Optimistic, Even with the Negatives: HUC-JIR and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1993 • 43