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H erb ert C.
Za jren
From Hochschule to
Judaica Conservancy
Foundation:
The Guttmann Affair
The Judaica Conservancy Foundation
came into being on January 31, 1986, when its Certificate of Incor
poration was filed with the State of New York. The Certificate
spells out that the use of the corporation’s “funds of real or person
al property” be “exclusively for charitable, religious, scientific, lit
erary, or educational purposes. . . .’’ It proceeds to focus on the
specific reason for setting up the Foundation, namely, “To receive
those books, manuscripts, and other assets awarded to the corpo
ration by order of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in
action entitled Robert Abrams, Attorney General of the State of
New York
v.
Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc et al. Index No. 42255/84.”
Later, I will deal with the chronology of this “action”; but here
it is enough to say that the incorporators were setting up a corpo
ration that would be ready to serve a purpose if certain outcomes
of the “action” eventuated. The foresight of the founders was vin
dicated when the Court decided that “all rights, title, and interest
in all books and manuscripts sold at the June 26, 1984 [Sotheby’s]
auction . . . shall and hereby do vest in the Judaica Conservancy
Foundation, Inc.”1
The first “organizational “ meeting of the Trustees took place
on November 6, 1986. The six trustees were elected officers as fol
lows:
1. (Justice) Robert E. White,
Order,
August 14, 1986, p.3
I 44