Troll with 50 e-mail aliases being prosecuted for impersonating an opponent on line

[steven johnson]

Here is a case of a lawyer using 50 'sock puppets' to defend his father's point of view on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Mr. Golb is accused of trying to inflict harm on Lawrence H. Schiffman, the chairman of Judaic studies at N.Y.U. by impersonating him, writing from [e-mail] to Professor Schiffman’s graduate students and dean, alerting them to an article that suggested he had committed plagiarism.

It sounds like he's got a lot of explaining to do.

November 6, 2009
Early one morning in March, the law banged on the door of an apartment on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village. Investigators had a warrant to arrest Raphael Haim Golb and seize his computer. He was caught red-handed.

Mr. Golb is, or was, a guerrilla fighter in a cyberbrawl over the Dead Sea Scrolls, a war about the origins of 2,000-year-old documents that has consumed the energy of academics around the globe.

He was being arrested for fighting dirty.

Mr. Golb is 49 years old and had 50 e-mail aliases. He used pseudonyms to post on blogs. Under the name of a professor he was trying to undermine, prosecutors charged, Mr. Golb wrote a quasi confession to plagiarism and circulated it among students and officials at New York University.


2,000-Year-Old Scrolls, Internet-Era Crime

[endless october]

1. the internet is serious business

to that troll.

[Dead Sea Troll]

2. "Dead Sea Troll," ha-ha

There's an interesting article about this case at:

http://tzvee.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-raphael-golb-guilty.html

The author is Tzvee Zahavy, a well-known professor and rabbi. He says the troll is "not guilty of any crime or tort."

He also says Professor Schiffman of N.Y.U. called him "to explain to us how wrong we are and how uninformed about the case we are. He went on and on. We thanked him for his call and wished him a good day."

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Bearing that article in mind, try reading these DU threads from a couple of years ago:

Evangelists set Dead Sea Scrolls agenda in San Diego; Steven Spielberg grant money misused (pro-'Charles Gadda' OP)

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit controversy continues in San Diego (pro-Gadda and Golb OP, from same user)

And then these:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=214&topic_id=158621
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=214&topic_id=155302
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=214&topic_id=160056
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=228&topic_id=36730
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=228&topic_id=33434
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=228&topic_id=33840

and you get the feeling that particular ID had rather an obsession with putting forward Golb's point of view. Hmm ....

[DeSwiss]

4. Well that at least explains.....

...why the chump never responded to my posts on his threads. He was looking for the deluded. Those who believe that any of this religious crap matters other than from a historical/archeological POV.

And so are you suggesting that this is the same jerk who used the Internets to try and ruin someone's reputation that he hates? All the while leaving a trail of bread crumbs right to his door?

- FANTASTIC. I love it!!! Besides, cell block D could use another computer whiz......

[struggle4progress]

5. This seems to involve a political squabble between opponents of the so-called

"Standard Interpretation" of the scrolls. The "Standard Interpretation" was worked out by a small group that controlled access to photo-reproductions of the scrolls until 1991. When the materials became widely available, there were a number of scholarly criticisms of the "Standard Interpretation" -- and the OP seems to reflect a turf and priority battle between some of these critics of the "Standard Interpretation." In particular, Golb (the son of one of these critics) is pushing the idea that another critic plagiarized ideas from Golb's father. I'm sure it matters to the principals, but I can't see how we have much to add here: let them settle it in court