Raphael Golb Guilty of Impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls ScholarIntroduction Talkback Add Your Comment
Explore below coverage of the Raphael Golb trial. Let us know what you think in the Talkbacks.
 A New York jury returned a verdict of guilty on 30 of 31 counts against 50-year-old Raphael Golb, son of University of Chicago Dead Sea Scroll scholar Norman Golb. Thus ended Raphael Golb’s three week trial in which he admitted to originating hundreds of emails and blogs, in some of which he used fake accounts to impersonate prominent scroll scholar Lawrence Schiffman of New York University.
Some weeks later, Golb was sentenced to six months of prison time.
Signing his name as Schiffman, Raphael Golb made it appear that Schiffman was confessing to having plagiarized from Raphael Golb’s father, Norman, whose offbeat views on the scrolls differ markedly from Schiffman’s. The prosecution charged the younger Golb with identity theft, forgery and harassment. Four additional scholars were also victims of Golb’s impersonation.
The targeted scholars disagree with Golb’s father about the origin of the scrolls. Norman Golb contends that Qumran, near the caves where the scrolls were found, was a military fortress, not the communal home of a group of
Essenes, as most scholars believe, and that the scrolls originated not with the Essenes but from several libraries in Jerusalem.
Raphael Golb's SentencingThere has been an update in the case. Raphael Golb has filed an appeal - here is the brief. http://raphaelgolbtrialtranscripts.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/raphael-golb-appeal-brief-filed/ • • • • • • • Raphael Golb's E-mails"Signing his name as Schiffman, Raphael Golb made it appear that Schiffman was confessing to having plagiarized from Raphael Golb’s father, Norman." Raphael Golb wrote his e-mails in a humourous style that made it obvious they were not from Lawrence Schiffman. Dr Schiffman's colleagues, to whom the e-mails were sent, described them as "weird", according to a witness for the prosecution, Dean Stimpson of New York University. This in no way deserved a criminal prison sentence. • • • • • • • Raphael Golb's account of his trialcan be downloaded at: http://www.sirpeterscott.com/images/golbstatement.pdf • • • • • • • Correct link to Norman Golb's articleIt took me a while to find Professor Golb's article, because the link posted by Howard Fredrics is wrong. The correct link is: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/schiffman_response_2010nov30.pdf • • • • • • • Correct link to Norman Golb's articleIt took me a while to find Professor Golb's article, because the link posted above is wrong. The correct link is: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/schiffman_response_2010nov30.pdf • • • • • • • Correct link to Dr. Golb's articleIt took me a while to find Norman Golb's article on Lawrence Schiffman's "confidential letter," because the link posted by Howard Fredrics appears to have a typographical mistake in it. The correct link is: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/schiffman_response_2010nov30.pdf • • • • • • • Golb ConvictionFor another point of view on the underlying issues at hand in the Golb case, read Prof. Norman Golb's response to the "confidential" letter written by Prof. Lawrence Schiffman to NYU officials. For those interested in reading Prof. Norman Golb's response to a "confidential" letter written by Prof. Lawrence Schiffman to NYU officials. http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/schiffman_responce_2010nov30.pdf • • • • • • • |
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