Obituary of Joseph Baumgarten

From the obituary of Joseph Baumgarten by Lawrence Schiffman (published on the SBL Forum):

This past Thursday, December 4, 2008, the community of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars and, more widely, the world of biblical and early Judaic Studies scholars, suffered the loss of a great colleague and a close friend. Professor Joseph M. Baumgarten left this world for the academy on high after succumbing to a long and difficult bout with cancer. He was buried on the following Sunday in his beloved city of Jerusalem where he and his late wife had maintained an apartment. Professor Baumgarten was a major scholar whose contributions to the study of Jewish law (halakhah) in the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as other aspects of scrolls research were pioneering and central to the development of Qumran Studies as we know it today.

Read the rest.