Professor clears air about lawsuit

By Jennifer Umaña
Daily Forty-Niner

After settling an eight-year court battle, Cal State Long Beach Professor Robert Eisenman is still trying to clear the misunderstandings that came with the lawsuit against him.

Eisenman, who is currently on sabbatical from CSULB, was sued for copyright violation in 1992 along with Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, and James Robinson, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, for a book they collaborated on.

The book, "A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls," featured 1,785 photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are 2,000-year-old religious documents. Eisenman and Robinson edited pictures for the book, which was published by Shanks.

In Shanks' attachments to the book's foreword, he included a one-page excerpt from Elisha Qimron's writings on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Qimron, a scholar at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, Israel, did not give permission for usage of the excerpt.

Eisenman, a professor of Religious Studies, said he and Robinson did not know Shanks was using the excerpt.

"He showed us the foreword, but he never showed us the attachments to the foreword," Eisenman said Wednesday, one week after the court case was settled.

He said he was horrified once he found out.

"We protested vigorously and vehemently to Shanks."

Eisenman said he and Robinson were not aware of the use of Qimron's work until the book was three months old and in circulation.

"We had no intention of doing this," Eisenman said. "We disapproved of it. We had no need to do it."

Eisenman was served papers for the lawsuit in January1992, while on an archaeological expedition in Israel. He was with a group of about 25 people, some of whom were CSULB students. It was to be the first ever radar ground scan to see if they could find more pieces of the scroll.

Eisenman said he tried for years to get permission to go to Israel to lead such an expedition, but he was always denied authorization. He said the Israeli government must have granted him permission because they knew the lawsuit was coming.

"I never would have gone to Israel to be sued," Eisenman said. They served him the papers in order to establish Israel court jurisdiction. Robinson's papers were served to him by fax.

A lower court found Eisenman, Robinson and Shanks all liable. The decision was appealed. The Israel Supreme Court found only Shanks liable and he was ordered to pay $50,000 to Qimron in damages. Shanks also had to pay $10,000 in court costs, while Eisenman and Robinson split a fee of $2,500.

"The eight years in court make us look evil – like we stole other people's work," Eisenman said.

Eisenman said he worked for many years to make the Dead Sea Scrolls available for study. The suit, however, prevents this from being possible, he said.

"The establishment took control of this field through this suit," he said.