While scholars still can’t agree on “Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?,” it appears the case of “Who Was Impersonating the Dead Sea Scrolls Scholar?” has been solved by the NYPD:
A New York City lawyer who is the son of a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar was arrested Thursday, accused of using the stolen identities of academics to discredit his father’s professional rivals.
Raphael Haim Golb, 49, used New York University’s computers to hide his identity while he used dozens of Internet aliases to trash adversaries and skew debate about the Dead Sea Scrolls, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.
Morgenthau said the investigation began last August when Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU, reported that he was being harassed and impersonated over the Internet by an anonymous person.
Golb, son of Dr. Norman Golb of the University of Chicago, opened an e-mail account in Schiffman’s name and sent 11 e-mails to NYU officials in which Schiffman purported to admit to plagiarizing scroll scholarship, Morgenthau said.(MORE)
