Meyers Leaves Annenberg Research Institute; Dead Sea Scrolls Project on Track

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Eric M. Meyers has stepped down as director of the Annenberg Research Institute (ARI), a little more than a year after assuming the position. Meyers will return to Duke University, where he is director of Duke University’s Center for Judaic Studies. He is also president of the American Schools of Oriental Research and editor of its semi-scholarly quarterly, Biblical Archaeologist. Until a new director is chosen, the acting director is William M. Brinner, professor of Near Eastern studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of ARI’s board of trustees.

Each year ARI grants fellowships to 13 to 15 scholars from around the world, who come to the institute to do research for six months or a year on a particular subject. The subject on which the institute’s fellows will be working in 1992–1993 is the Dead Sea Scrolls. This program will continue, despite Meyers’ departure, and its seminars will be conducted by Lawrence H. Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University.

ARI itself will be absorbed into the University of Pennsylvania as the Annenberg Center for Judaic Studies. The new director will report to the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Both ARI and the University of Pennsylvania are in Philadelphia. This marks the end of Dropsie College, ARI’s predecessor. Dropsie College, named after its benefactor, Moses Aaron Dropsie, was organized in 1907 as a graduate school for the study of Hebrew. Dropsie awarded the only Ph.D. in Hebrew studies at that time.

The following scholars have been awarded fellowships and will participate in the Dead Sea Scroll project:

Joseph Baumgarten, Baltimore Hebrew College (Cave 4 Halakhic Literature); George Brooke, Univ. of Manchester, England (Exegetical Traditions in the Pesharim); Devorah Dimant, Univ. of Haifa (Edition of New Pseudepigraphic Manuscripts from Cave 4); Ida Frohlich, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest (History of the Pesher Tradition in Qumran); Amnon Linder, Hebrew University (The Destruction of Jerusalem in Medieval Christian Literature); Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania (The Glossa ordinaria to the Wisdom Books of the Hebrew Bible); Bilha Nitzan, Tel Aviv University (A Study of Qumran Poetry); Elisha Qimron, Ben-Gurion University (The Unpublished Fragments of Genesis Apocryphon and Serekh ha-Yahad [Manual of Discipline]); Lawrence Schiffman, New York University (New Edition and Commentary of the Temple Scroll); Eileen Schuller, McMaster University, Canada (Edition of the Unpublished Hodayot [Thanksgiving Psalms] and Other Fragments from Cave 4); Shaul Shaked, Hebrew University (The Jewish Esoteric Tradition in Late Antiquity: Themes, Structures, and Parallels in Iran and Islam); Ephraim Stern, Hebrew University (The Material Culture of the Phoenicians in the Eastern Mediterranean and Cyprus); Hayim Tadmor, Hebrew University (Historical Commentary on 1 Kings); Shemaryahu Talmon, Hebrew University (Edition and Study of Unpublished Calendar Fragments from Qumran); Emanuel Tov (short-term fellow), Hebrew University (Edition of 4Q Pentateuchal Paraphrases), Eugene Ulrich (short-term fellow), University of Notre Dame (Edition of 4Q Pentateuchal Paraphrases); Sidnie White, Albright College (Study of the Methods and Purposes of the Pentateuchal Paraphrases and Temple Scroll).

Eric M. Meyers has stepped down as director of the Annenberg Research Institute (ARI), a little more than a year after assuming the position. Meyers will return to Duke University, where he is director of Duke University’s Center for Judaic Studies. He is also president of the American Schools of Oriental Research and editor of its semi-scholarly quarterly, Biblical Archaeologist. Until a new director is chosen, the acting director is William M. Brinner, professor of Near Eastern studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of ARI’s board of trustees. Each year ARI grants fellowships to 13 […]