Attorney busted for identity theft, forgery and harassment over DeadSea Scrolls

Carol Forsloff - An
attorney has been convicted of crimes involving the Dead Sea Scrolls,
specifically using forgery, aliases and identity theft to protect his
father's theories about them.

Historians and religious scholars have differed over the origin and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The debates have taken a high profile stance in the discussions between Christians and Jews on the authorship of the documents. 

Raphael Golb  was convicted of harassment and identity theft used to create 50
phone email accounts and many blogs to promote the views of his father,
scholar Norman Golb, and criticize his detractors.

Golb used the identity of Dr. Lawrence Schiffman who is a professor and
department chairman at New York University and used an email he created
using Schiffman's name to discredit and harass others.  He did this in
an attempt to undermine the work and opinions of anyone who disagreed
with the senior Golb.

Raphael Golb was found guilty of 30 counts and can be sentenced up to 4 years in prison.        

In
a statement referencing the case, Cyrus Vance, District Attorney, said
"Using fictitious identities to impersonate victims is not what open
academic debate seeks to foster.   It is true that the vast majority of
identity thieves seek to steal their victims' money, but in some cases
identity thieves maliciously intend to damage their victims' reputations
and harass them, while cowering in anonymity. Such was the case here."

Golb
was able to use office computers at New York University to mask his
true identity.  He received his law degree from NYU.  This allowed him
to forge his identity and manipulate documents in order to harass,
intimidate and criticize others.

The
Dead Sea Scrolls represent fragments of biblical documents and early
Jewish writings that were found between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves
near the site of Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea, which
gives them the name by which the documents have been known.  The value
of these documents to ancient religious history is said "to have
revolutionized our understanding of the way the Bible was transmitted,
and have illuminated the general cultural and religious background of
ancient Palestine, out of which both Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity
arose.
"

The following is an accepted description of what scholars accept as basic facts about the Dead Sea Scrolls:   "The
Dead Sea Scrolls were most likely written by the Essenes during the
period from about 200 B.C. to 68 C.E./A.D. The Essenes are mentioned by
Josephus and in a few other sources, but not in the New testament. The
Essenes were a strict Torah observant, Messianic, apocalyptic, baptist,
wilderness, new covenant Jewish sect. They were led by a priest they
called the "Teacher of Righteousness," who was opposed and possibly
killed by the establishment priesthood in
Jerusalem."

The
texts are 2000 years old and do not mention the name of Jesus by name
or any of his followers.  They contain segments of what scholars believe
to be part of the Hebrew Bible and other non-biblical information.
Norman Golb, who is a professor and father of the attorney convicted of
protecting his theories, believes the scrolls were not produced by the
Essenes but by several Jewish sects in Israel.

Professor Golb's summary beliefs, his son committed crimes to protect, are these:
"The Dead Sea Scrolls are the remnants, miraculously recovered, of a
hoard of spiritual treasures of the Jewish people of Second Commonwealth
times. They are the heritage of the Palestinian Jews of that time as a
whole, according to various parties, sects, and divisions that served as
the creative source--so an increasing number of scholars have come to
perceive--of a multitude of spiritual and social ideas.

"