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

Scan of original halftone plate of
Martin Abegg and Ben Zion Wacholder,
Cincinnati, September 1991
(©The American Israelite, reprinted
with permission)
Abegg was concerned that bootlegging
the texts might cost him a career before
he had even completed his doctorate.
Wacholder understood his concerns well,
as is apparent from an interview he and
Abegg gave in September 1991:
“He was taking a risk,” Wacholder said
of Abegg. “I am untouchable. I am old, I
am tenured.” But ultimately, Wacholder
predicted, the work [would] be helpful
to Abegg.
Abegg hoped Wacholder was right.
“I certainly would like to work,”
he said. 467
Colleagues, including Edward
Cook 468 and Bruce Zuckerman, recommended
to Abegg that he avoid publishing
the material. 469 HUC-JIR professor
Stephen Kaufman likewise counseled him against it. 470 Shanks encouraged him
to publish the material to circumvent the editorial team that had hoarded the
material for decades. 471 Ultimately, Abegg agreed to publish the material, even
while completing his dissertation. More than a decade later, Abegg explained
his reasoning in moving forward with a project that could have derailed his
scholarly career before it started:
The straw that broke the camel’s back was Ben Zion [Wacholder] himself. Here
was a man who was one of a very special generation who had been uprooted
from Eastern Europe during World War II, who had spent their whole lives
studying Jewish literature and law and knew it by heart, and yet had been
kept away from this material all these years. For Ben Zion and others like
him, I finally made the decision. 472
The initial publication was to consist of five volumes of reconstructed texts,
work primarily done by Abegg, and an English translation to be done primarily
by Wacholder. 473
Wacholder approached the Dutch publishing firm of E J. Brill in Leiden
first. 474 Brill had a long history of publishing scroll-related volumes and text
editions. Its series Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah began with the
publication of the Manual of Discipline in 1957. 475 Wachholder’s discussion with
Brill was not fruitful, and he eventually sought another publisher. The reason
for Brill’s disinterest in the project is not clear. However, at the same 1990 SBL
Optimistic, Even with the Negatives: HUC-JIR and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1993 • 65