The bare outline of the story of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is well known both to scholars and in the popular imagination. The precise details―the sequence and causal interplay of events, even some of the key players behind the scenes―are less well known and sometimes completely forgotten or misconstrued. The recovery of this history in all its complexity is vital for understanding how and why scholarly work on the Scrolls developed as it did over the six decades during which the texts were slowly published. Dr. Kalman recovers the fascinating story of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's involvement with the Dead Sea Scrolls from their discovery in 1948 until the early 1990s when they were first made accessible to all scholars and to the public. Scholars at HUC-JIR actively participated in efforts to acquire and preserve the manuscripts and played a significant part in breaking the monopoly of scholars initially assigned to publish them. Despite these activities, a number of HUC-JIR’s influential teachers took a negative view of the scrolls. As a consequence, rabbinical students either did not encounter the material or left the institution with a view of it that was far from the mainstream. This book traces the activities of HUC-JIR’s administration and faculty over five decades, the contribution they made to the new academic field, and their influence on how knowledge of the Dead Sea Scrolls was shared with the community at large. Many details about security negatives stored at HUC and about the bootleg reconstruction are revealed for the first time.

Hebrew Union College and the Dead Sea Scrolls

History

Kalman, Jason

Americas

Hebrew Union College Press

Providing many vibrant details, the authors examine the intrigue surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls and debunk many of the myths about them, including allegations of the Vatican's involvement in hiding the texts from scholars, the possibility that they contained earth shattering revelations, and the actual status of the infamous international editorial committee who limited access to the texts. A fascinating account of international relations, religious negotiation, and scholars, Canada's Big Biblical Bargain reveals another part of the fascinating tale of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls

Du Toit, Jaqueline S.

McGill-Queen's University Press

Despite its general absence from the Jewish liturgical cycle and its limited place in Jewish practice, the Book of Job has permeated Jewish culture over the last 2,000 years. Job has not only had to endure the suffering described in the biblical book, but the efforts of countless commentators, interpreters, and creative rewriters whose explanations more often than not challenged the protagonist's righteousness in order to preserve Divine justice. Beginning with five critical essays on the specific efforts of ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish writers to make sense of the biblical book, this volume concludes with a detailed survey of the place of Job in the Talmud and Midrashic corpus, in medieval biblical commentary, in ethical, mystical, and philosophical tracts, as well as in poetry and creative writing in a wide variety of Jewish languages from around the world from the second to sixteenth centuries.

The Book of Job in Jewish Life and Thought: Critical Essays

World

Continuum: The Art of Modern Interiors

Arts & Photography

Magni, James

Architecture

The Monacelli Press

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Books by Kalman, Jason