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they brought. I expect—and the Court has already found it probable that
those claims will fail. The Court would then formulate a disposition plan for
the materials that either recognizes HUC’s property interest or optimizes their
utilization by institutions o f higher Jewish scholarship, depending upon
whether HUC ’s direct claim is accepted. However, the Court need not con
front that issue because the conservancy arrangement will fully accommodate
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 conser
vancy arrangement and to identify appropriate participants.
The background o f the conservancy agreement is this: When the existence
of the Hochschule books and manuscripts came to light last year, the JT S pur
chased the most prized elements of the collection, the Prague Bible and Cata
lan 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 preserve them. W e reached an agreement
in principle. W e hope to bring other appropriate institutions o f higher Jewish
learning into the arrangement.
As proposed, the conservancy, which would own these materials, will in
clude a representative o f each participating institution as a trustee. . . . The
trust will preserve the books and manuscripts. . . and make them available to
institutions o fJewish or general scholarship. The agreement would provide for
admission of additional appropriate institutions in the future (pp. 13-14) .
Put another way in the accompanying memorandum: “HUC
does not insist upon asserting its property interest in those materi
als to the exclusion of other institutions of higher Jewish learning.
Instead, HUC proposes a conservancy arrangement, whereby
HUC, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Leo Baeck College,
and other appropriate institutions of higher Jewish learning will
share ownership and access to these materials” (pp. 13-14).
CON SERVANCY PLAN
The setdement was approved despite HUC’s opposition, but
HUC’s espousal of the conservancy plan was more successful.