Raphael Haim Golb arrested for using internet alias to defend his father's Dead Sea Scrolls theories

[scooby]

"That's amazing!" :mrgreen:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03062009/ne ... 158257.htm

DEAD SEA SCROLL SON IN HOT WATER

March 6, 2009

A Manhattan lawyer took being the good son too far - waging a "campaign of impersonation and harassment" against academics who opposed his dad's theories on the Dead Sea Scrolls, prosecutors said yesterday.

Raphael Haim Golb, 49, used "dozens of Internet aliases" and posed as professors online in order "to influence and affect debate" on the Dead Sea Scrolls, prosecutors said.

The main target of his ire was Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, the chair of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU, prosecutors said.

"Both his father and Schiffman are scholars with opposing views," said Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Dr. Norman Golb, a professor of Jewish history and civilization at the University of Chicago, is a proponent of the view that the 2,000-year-old scrolls were the work of Jewish sects who hid them in caves near the Dead Sea while fleeing Jerusalem. He's the author of the book "Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?"

Schiffman is a proponent of the theory that the scrolls were the work of one sect called the Essenes, who lived near the Dead Sea.

Those were fighting words to the younger Golb, who, the DA said, opened an e-mail account in Schiffman's name last August and, posing as the professor, sent out a missive to his colleagues and NYU students claiming to be a plagiarist.

He made similar allegations against Schiffman using other aliases, the DA's office said.

Schiffman said he was astonished when a student told him about "his" e-mail.

"I felt violated and attacked," he said.

He said he was stunned to find out the source of the vitriol against him.

"The son decided it was appropriate to defend, in a pugilistic and militaristic way, the views of his father," he said. "I can't believe anyone would get this hopped up about it.

"It's bizarre. There's something called 'the curse of the scrolls.' People get out of balance. It makes you think, what's going on here?"

Golb's father became short of breath when he was told of his son's arrest yesterday. "I can't believe this. I can't. This is horrible," he said on the phone from Chicago.

He said his son, who has a law degree from NYU and a Ph.D. from Harvard, "would never impersonate professor Schiffman or anyone else."

"My dear son. He's such a brilliant young man. He wouldn't lie like this, first of all. There is something that's been trumped up here," he said.

Golb said he knew his son was a vigorous proponent of his views and would write blogs defending him and disagreeing with Schiffman.

"It was honest, straightforward debate," he said.

The younger Golb was awaiting arraignment last night on charges of identity theft, criminal impersonation, forgery and aggravated harassment.