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Roitman Appointed Curator at Shrine of the Book

On November 1, 1994, Adolfo Roitman, a lecturer at Hebrew University, became the new curator of Jerusalem’s Shrine of the Book, the museum built in 1965 to house the Dead Sea Scrolls initially acquired by Israel. The 37-year-old Roitman replaced Magen Broshi, recently retired, who had served in that post since the museum’s opening.

The new curator shares the view of many that in recent years the essentially unchanging exhibit at the museum simply failed to tell the story of the scrolls.^a Roitman told BAR, “Although many people visit the Shrine, they often don’t understand the real meaning of what they’re looking at. They know the scrolls are important, but they don’t know why.”

The main problem, Roitman said, lay in the conception of the museum in years past as a shrine—a holy place where visitors were expected to worship, to maintain a respectful silence and an attitude of awed reverence. Roitman envisions a “living museum” where children are as welcome as scholars, and where visitors can talk informally and exchange information without feeling that they are violating the decorum of a temple. The paramount obligation of the Shrine of the Book, he believes, is to educate the public about the rich and varied history of Second Temple Judaism.