Using advanced photographic and computer techniques that...

Using advanced photographic and computer techniques that he developed, USC’s Bruce Zuckerman and Southland colleagues recently photographed the nearly 1,000 pages of a distinctive manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Leningrad in the Soviet Union.

More significant, Zuckerman launched another aspect of U.S.-Soviet cooperation, one that may provide Western scholarly access to an extraordinary collection of Jewish manuscripts.

Zuckerman, an associate religion professor and director of USC’s West Semitic Research Project, spent part of May and June at the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library.

The team of scholars photographed the Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete edition of the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, which was dated to the equivalent of AD 1005. The Masoretes were Jewish scribes who prided themselves on accurate transmission of the biblical texts over the centuries.

Some incomplete Masoretic manuscripts are older than the Leningrad Codex, and the Dead Sea Scroll finds yielded even older versions of the Hebrew Bible. But the Leningrad Codex is replete with tiny shorthand notes of the scribes, some so difficult to make out that only Zuckerman’s techniques may provide a good reading.

Zuckerman estimated that it will take his team a year to process the film.

The Leningrad Codex is part of the Antonin and Firkowitsch collections in the Leningrad library, estimated at 20,000 documents.

“The holdings are truly incredible--the largest collection of Hebrew manuscripts in the world,” said Steve Delamarter, outgoing director of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont. Delamarter, who accompanied Zuckerman to Leningrad, said the “vast majority of the documents have not been photographed or copied in any way.”

Members of the joint USC-manuscript center project left photographic equipment with library technicians in Leningrad. The Americans will train the Soviets to use it upon their return there, Delamarter said.

In recent years, Zuckerman has photographed a variety of early Christian manuscripts and some Dead Sea Scrolls to enhance features in a way not possible with conventional processes. He will serve as acting director of the Claremont center under James Sanders, president, starting July 31.

PEOPLE

Orthodox Rabbi Ari Hier, 26, son of Simon Wiesenthal Center founder Marvin Hier, has become the new Hillel director at USC, succeeding Reform Rabbi Laura Geller in the post serving Jewish students. It was a remarkable shift on the liberal-to-conservative spectrum. But Geller, now executive director of the American Jewish Congress in Los Angeles, told the Jewish Journal that after her 14 years as director it was not surprising “that the students would choose someone different.” Hier spent a year serving as a tank crewman in the Israeli Defense Forces and has conservative political views, but Geller said that, regardless of one’s views, a successful Hillel rabbi is one who loves students, cares about Jewish people and is “passionately committed to Jewish pluralism.”

Another ex-Hillel official who has moved into a regional Jewish agency job in Los Angeles is Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, who succeeded Neil Sandberg last month as western regional director of the American Jewish Committee. Greenebaum, a Reform rabbi, previously served as regional director of the Northern California Hillel Council.

MEETINGS

More than 500 delegates and thousands of visitors are expected to attend the triennial convention of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the Anaheim Convention Center for four days starting Thursday. Coinciding with the event will be a celebration of 20 years in U.S. Lutheran churches of ordaining women--who now number 1,100, or just under 7% of the total clergy in the Chicago-based denomination. The Rev. Janice M. Brosen of San Diego will preach during the closing worship service at 10:15 a.m. July 15.

The Western-states Fifth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church will open its first “Festival of the Holy Trinity” Sunday with a 7 p.m. worship service at the White Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles, then hold meetings and services Monday through Wednesday at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel. The district, headed by Bishop Vinton R. Anderson of St. Louis, has scheduled lectures at 10:15 a.m. by William Pannell of Fuller Theological Seminary, Cornish Rogers of the School of Theology at Claremont and San Diego Bishop George McKinney of the Church of God in Christ.

The patriarchal figure of Abraham--a personage in sacred scripture for Judaism, Christianity and Islam--will be the focus of a public conference Tuesday at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles. Rabbi Alfred Wolf and Catholic Msgr. Royale Vadakin will join Islamic speakers Maher and Hassan Hathout in the 8:30-11 a.m. program. Sponsors urged that interested people respond by today by calling (213) 384-5783.