Construction has begun in Jerusalem of a sanctuary to house the famed Dead Sea Scrolls, it was announced here today by the D.S. and R.H. Gottesman Foundation, which is donating the funds for the construction of the new building. Four of the Dead Sea Scrolls were donated to the State of Israel in 1955 by the late D. Samuel Gottesman, prominent Jewish industrialist and philanthropist.
To be known as the “Shrine of the Book,” the new structure, which is being built adjoining the new Israel National Museum near the Hebrew University campus, will house the D.S. and R.H. Gottesman Center for Rare Biblical Manuscripts and will include a permanent exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Biblical and historical documents. Based on a novel architectural concept, the structure itself, except for its double-parabolic dome, is underground, an idea suggested originally by the fact that the Scrolls were found in a cave.
The Scrolls to be housed in the Shrine will include, among others, the two oldest manuscripts of the Book of Isaiah; the Manual of Discipline, containing the book of statutes and regulations of the Essenes sect; and the Commentary on Habbakuk. The Bar Kochba letters and documents, discovered in Israel last year, will also be on permanent display in the Shrine.
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