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22
JEWISH BOOK ANNUAL
This is the first official mention o f a conservancy idea, and
it refers to a docum en t signed by HUC and JT S five months
earlier in March o f 1985.
As the affidavit went on, Gottschalk described the spiritual
and academic kinship between the Hochschule and HUC, the
life-saving transfer for train ing and ord ination in Cincinnati
o f European students who started their studies in Berlin, the
“Refugee Scholars Project” which rescued Liberal
and
O rthodox
scholars, the invitation and the difficult negotiations that led
to Gu ttm ann ’s leaving Germany for Cincinnati — bringing the
books with him. All o f these were described as aspects o f what
he called “the moral force o f HUC ’s claim” (p. 11). Gottschalk
then said that HUC had to oppose the proposed settlement
because it included the sale o f the Prague Bible and the Catalan
Machzor and the payment o f the $900,000 proceeds to the
Guttmanns. “We oppose the settlement because it is concession
ary to an undeserving de fendan t and inequitable to HUC” (p.
13). He continued:
HUC believes the Court should reject the proposed settlement
and hear and determine the Guttmann defendants’ claims to the
books and manuscripts. If they prevail, then they are legally en
titled to retain all o f those materials or the price they brought.
I expect — and the Court has already found it probable — that
those claims will fail. The Court would then formulate a dispo
sition plan for the materials that either recognizes HUC’s prop
erty interests or optimizes their utilization by institutions o f high
er Jewish scholarship, depending upon whether HUC’s direct
claim is accepted. However, the Court need not confront that
issue because the conservancy arrangement will fully accommo
date all interests. On that latter point we would support a decision
by the Court to seek the advice and guidance o f the JRSO to
assess the feasibility o f the conservancy arrangement and to iden
tify appropriate participants.
The background o f the conservancy agreement is this: When
the existence o f the Hochschule books and manuscripts came
to light last year, the JTS purchased the most prized elements
o f the collection, the Prague Bible and Catalan Machzor, from
the Guttmann defendants in a private sale in June 1984 before
the auction took place. Thereafter, HUC and JTS negotiated
toward a conservancy arrangement in an effort to make the Bible
and Machzor broadly available to scholars and to carefully pre
serve them. We reached an agreement in principle. We hope