The Dead Sea Scrolls are at the center of an identity theft dispute and arrest.
Raphael Golb, a Manhattan real estate attorney, was arrested yesterday and charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. According to the Manhattan district attorney, Golb used stolen identities to bolster the theories about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls posited by his father, Norman Golb, a University of Chicago professor, about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The charges are based on claims by Lawrence Schiffman, chairman of the Hebrew and Judaic studies department at NYU, that Raphael Golb set up blog sites on which he used other people’s identities to accuse Schiffman of plagiary.
Raphael Golb is also accused of sending emails in Schiffman’s name to other Dead Sea Scrolls scholars in which he admitted to plagiarizing Norman Golb’s work.
“This exemplifies a growing trend in the area of identity theft,” Antonia Merzon, an assistant district attorney, said during a press conference in Manhattan yesterday.
While it’s OK to use another person’s name to open an account on the Internet, using that person’s identity is an identity theft or impersonation crime, Merzon said.
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