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

The media interest provided another forum for Gottschalk and Wacholder.
Gottschalk credited Wacholder for providing the impetus for the photographs
finally to be made public: “The painful part was that we couldn’t let him use
what was at HUC.” Gottschalk’s statement is significant for two reasons. First,
by highlighting Wacholder’s efforts, he attempted to place HUC in a leadership
role in breaking the monopoly rather than its role in keeping the negatives
secured and away from other scholars. Second, scholars accused Wacholder
and Abegg of having had access to materials other than the concordance
to aid their reconstruction efforts. In writing about their edition’s accuracy,
Hartmut Stegemann suggested the reconstructions were simply too accurate:
“In general, everything is perfectly done. I wonder if the editors, indeed, used
the concordance only, or whether they also had Milik’s transcription or some
photos.” 564 As early as November 1989, Broshi had suggested that HUC-JIR
released copies of negatives to Wacholder. 565 As Gottschalk made clear, and
Abegg and Wacholder maintained, they made no use of HUC-JIR’s negatives
because they were never given access to them. 566
Interest in HUC-JIR’s scroll collection might have increased, but the
school was caught in a strange situation, as Gilner reported:
We were given this in trust to hold safely, but nothing came with it to fund us
as a scroll institute, so we don’t have the staff or the funds to go about doing
the things we’re being asked to do.… This is not something we have much
experience with, but we’re learning. 567
It was clear, though, that HUC-JIR was
not in a position to make the negatives
useful to inquiring scholars. Gilner noted
of the negatives, “It was intended to be an
archive.… We don’t have a light table to
use the negatives.” 568 In fact, in the only
photograph of Gilner examining the negatives,
he is holding one up in the air so that
the ceiling light shines through it, making
it readable. 569 The College needed equipment
to study the negatives. Zafren was
raising funds to help support research and
preservation efforts. He received a $5,000
donation from Oliver Birckhead, retired
CEO of Central Bancorporation, to be used
in these matters. 570
Despite the difficulties, HUC-JIR
and Gilner were pleased the material had
finally been opened. “No librarian,” Gilner
78 • American Jewish Archives Journal
Scan of original halftone plate of
David Gilner examining negative,
Cincinnati, October 1991
(©The American Israelite, reprinted
with permission)