Dead Sea Scrolls arrive in Los Angeles

EXPOSITION PARK, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Dead Sea Scrolls have arrived in Los Angeles! The exhibit opens to the public next Tuesday at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

"It is so exciting. We've been talking about this and working on this for the last 2 1/2 years," said David Siegel, Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles.

The California Science Center unveiled their Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit Thursday. It is the largest exhibit of Dead Sea Scrolls outside of Israel.

Last week, Eyewitness News visited the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem to see the lab that cares for the scrolls.

On Thursday, Pnina Shor, curator and head of the project, was like a proud mom.

"They're very fragile and therefore they're taken care of as babies," Shor said.

Setting up for something so old and fragile is not an easy task.

"The first thing the venue needs to do is build these cases. Each case is separately climate controlled, meaning humidity and temperatures as in our storerooms, as in our labs and as in the caves," Shor said.

While they're in Los Angeles, the Dead Sea Scrolls can only be handled by the conservator of the scrolls.

"It is a very great opportunity to bring the scrolls to people who have never seen them before and to share our heritage with other people all over the world," said Tania Bitler, conservator of the Dead Sea Scrolls.