PROFESSOR JOSEPH M. BAUMGARTEN has passed away. Just got the sad news from Professor Lawrence Schiffman, who e-mails:

Dear friends,

I regret to have to inform you of the passing on Thursday of our colleague and friend Prof. Joseph Baumgarten. He was memorialized in Baltimore on Friday and he will be buried in Israel on Sunday.

May his righteous memory be for a blessing!

Amen.

Professor Moshe Bernstein also e-mails with information on the funeral arrangements. The message has personal family information, so I won't post it here. But if you'll be in Jerusalem this evening and wish to attend, drop me a note and I'll forward it.

Here's the notice of (Rabbi Dr.) Professor Baumgarten's passing in the Baltimore Sun. I can't find an online biography or vita, but here's a list of some of his major publications. He did a great deal of important work on the legal traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls.