`Shapiro
Forgery' Draws Attention to Dead Sea Scroll Issue
The fuss made over the Dead

to Shapira, for there was no rea- thus justify to a great extent
son to retain them, and in any what Professor Zeitlin of Drop-
case they belonged to him. He sie- College, Philadelphia, has
probably took them with him been claiming about the Dead
when he left England. As stated Sea Scrolls on the basis of in-
above, Shapira committed sui- ternal evidence."
cide. He shot himself in a Rot-
Dr. Solomon Zeitlin,' editor of
terdam hotel through the head the Jewish Quarterly Review,
on March 11, -.1884, with a re- appended to this aricle the fol-
volver. 'For a few days,' re- lowing note:
ported the London .Daily News,
"I believe the entire blame for
'he had not left his room, the the sensationaliSm in connection
door of which was kept locked. with the,Shapira forgeries should
The police forced the lock and not be placed on Mr. Hillaby
found -the bloody corpse lying for his dispatch published in
upon the bed. Cards were found The New York Times of August
upon him proclaiming him the 13, 1956. Mr. Hillaby reported
agent of the British Museum re- only what he had, been told by
siding at Jerusalm, and also a Professor M. Monsoor of the
letter a recent date which
Wisconsin University, namely
proved the mental aberration that "Professor Monsoor said
under which Mr. Shapira had that when he first heard by
been suffering for some time.' It chance (sic!) that something re-
may be that the fragments were markably like a Dead Sea scroll
also among his -papers. An in- had been discovered more than
quiry -from. the Rotterdam po- seventy 'years
- ago and might
lice did not solicit any informa- still be in the vaults
of the Brit-
tion whatever. I think, however,
ish MuSeum, he 'could not
that there is no necessity to find sleep'." Mr. Hillaby further
the original strips, for there said that Prof. Monsoor's im-
exist faithful copies of the texts pression is "that there is a good
as well as facsimilies. And it is chance of this scroll emerging
an internal evidence alone that as a genuine one." Mr. Hillaby
the mystery about the Shapira adds "Dr. S.
Yeivin, a noted
fragments ceases to be a mys-
archaeologist and director of
tery.
the Department of Antiquities
"There is, on the other hand, in Israel, also believes the case
a very important aspect of Pro- calls for reinvestigation."
fessor Monsoor's efforts to re-
"Evidently, Professor Man-
investigate the Shapira frag- soar was unaware of the litera-
thents. If it should be possible ture referred to by Oskar K.
to prove — as is indicated in Rabinowitz in his article. More
John Hillaby's report — that literature may be added. Ind.,
these fragments are textually dentally I should like to call
similar to or in some parts even Professor Monsoor's attention to
identical with certain scrolls
novel, 'The Little Daughter of
discovered since 19 -47 at Qum- Jerusalem' (translated from the
ran, • then a mystery of un- French) by Myriam Harry. The
paralleled importance would be author's name is a pseudonym.
woven round the latter, and She is the daughter of Shapira,

Sea Scrolls serves to recall an
incident, more than 70 years
ago, revolving around the so-
called "Shapira Scroll" which
has been branded a forgery.
New investigations, recently
made by Prof. Kenahem Mon-
- soor, of the University of Wis-
consin, attracted new attention
to the Shapira documents, based
on dispatch to the New York
Times from London, by the
Times correspondent, Jahn
Hillaby.

M. W. Shapira was .a Polish
Jew who was converted to
Christianity and settled in
jersusalem as an antique deal-
er. The British Museum pur-
chased through him several
Yemenite and ancient rab-
binic documents. -

The story goes that his repu-
tation was shattered when he
attempted to sell as genuine
Moabite antiquities items that
were declared to be spurious by
t h e archaeologist Clermont-
Ganneau.
Shapira became notorious in
1883, when he offered for sale a
Deuteronomy manuscript. These
are the documents that -were
later founr.i. to be forgeries.
In an article in the current
issue of Jewish Quarterly Re-
• view on "The Shapira Forgery
Mystery," Dr. Oskar K. Rabi-
nowicz reviews the case crif-
ically and provides data that
draws attention also to the
Dead Sea Scrolls.

,

Dr. Rabinowitz maintains that
there was no prejudice against
Shapira. He quotes extensively
all available evidence to show
that claims of 2,000 years of
antiquity for the Shapira docu-
ments were false.
Referring to the documents,
Dr. Rabinowicz. states: "The un-
classical a n d ungrammatical
character of the Hebrew text,
as well as - the ignorance which
it reveals in places, could not
be set aside by any eventual
new external evidence. For it is
quite possible to write new He-
brew texts on very old sheep-
skins, but that would not make
the fragments genuine. There-
fore I believe that no mystery
accompanies the Shapira frag-
ments, even if the originals can-
not be found. They may or may
not be in the vaults of the Brit- -
ish Museum. (like Professor
Monsoor I could not •trace them
there when I was looking for
them three years . ago.) They
were in all probability returned
•

FirSt Women's ORT Group
Founded in City of Munich

MUNICH, (JTA) — The first
Women's ORT Committee in
Germany was founded here with
'the installation of • officers head-
ed by chairman.. Mrs. Else
Mayer-Ettlinger. Mrs. Gertrude
Kaphan, a past president of the
Women's American ORT and a
vice-president of the World ORT
Union, installed the officers.

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Zeitlin's. Position
On. Scrolls Refuted
By Gen. Yigal Yadin

"I' don't want to waste any
- more time speaking of Prof.
Zeitlin," declared Gen. Yigal
Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, in
answer to questions on the for-
mer's charges against the an-
tiquity of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Yadin, one of the chief ex-
ponents of the historical sig -nifi-
came of the scrolls, made the
statement to the representative
of The Jewish News during his
visit here to address the Hanu-
kah. Israel Bonds_ Festival at
the Ford Auditorium Saturday
night.
"Prof. Zeitlin (of Dropsie
College, Philadelphia) is en-
tirely w r on g," the general
asserted. "His - accusations are
clearly refuted by carbon tests
performed by scientists and ar-
chaeologists, who have conclu-
sively established the pre-
Christian origin of the scrolls,"
he said.

and she relates in her book the
story 'of the strips of leather
which had been forged by her
father. She refers to her father
as Mr. Benedictus and to Cler-
mont-Gann.eau as Merle-Van-
neau. She tells `about the sui-
cide of her father in the Hotel
de Bloemendaal in Rotterdam."
Thus, - an old forgery may be
linked to new cries—or it may
cause those who are magnifying
the importanCe of the Dead Sea
Scrolls to pay attention to their
repudiations - by Prof. Zeitlin. At
least, old incidents should cause
scholars to heed the 'warnings-
of those who differ With them.
How else can truth be •estab-
lislied, if not by honoring chal-
lenging viewpoints?
—B. S.

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