Hebrew Union College and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Between 1948 and 1993, scholars at HUC-JIR were actively engaged in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 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, which created a situation in which rabbinical students either did not encounter the material or left the institution with a view of it that was far from the mainstream. This article traces the activities of HUC-JIR's professors 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 Jewish clergy and teachers-in-training.