"On the Internet today, everybody knows you’re a dog." - Jim Dwyer, New York Times, Nov 6, 2009

UPDATE: VIEW LEGAL FILINGS IN THE CASE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK VS. RAPHAEL GOLB
	Raphael Golb (left) is the son of Dead Sea Scroll scholar Dr. Norman Golb Image: Steven Hirsch/New York Post available from: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03082009/photos/news014b.jpg

Who Is Charles Gadda?
www.who-is-charles-gadda.com

or

The Jerusalem Bobst Libraries Theory

compiled by

Dr. Robert R. Cargill

If you'd like to skip to the good parts, see the Introduction, Conclusion, and Press.

Introduction

For the past two years, I have quietly and rigorously chronicled the activity of an unknown individual who has dedicated himself (or herself) to the criticism of the traveling Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition presently touring North America. The focus of this criticism surrounds the theories of Professor Norman Golb, who believes the Dead Sea Scrolls were not written at Qumran, but were the product of multiple libraries surrounding Jerusalem. Because this view is not widely accepted, this individual has undertaken a systematic campaign of promotion and defense of the academic views of Dr. Golb. In addition, this individual has perpetrated an unrelenting campaign of criticism, defamation, and accusation of scholars involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions and other Dead Sea Scrolls scholars that accept a view of the scrolls that links them to a group of Jewish sectarians at Qumran.

I make no accusations on this page, and I draw no conclusions. In fact, I am under advisement not to do so. This page is nothing more than an accumulation of data surrounding a particular use of anonymous internet personalities and aliases dedicated to the propagation of Dr. Golb's views, and the criticism of all those who disagree. I have finally decided to organize this data here until I decide what to do with it next. Until such a time as this, please consider this page a work in progress...

Below is but some of the evidence I have logged. If you'd like, you may skip to the conclusion.

Shalom,

Robert R. Cargill, Ph.D.

Who is Charles Gadda?

The alias "Charles Gadda" is one of over 80 known anonymous internet aliases dedicated to the advocacy and defense of the academic theories of Dr. Norman Golb, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor of Jewish History and Civilization at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. The puppet master behind alias "Charles Gadda" and the other aliases is engaged in a scorched earth campaign to criticize, libel, and defame scholars involved with the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls who do not accept the theories of Dr. Golb. Additionally, the puppet master has dedicated himself to an organized and systematic campaign of criticism of the traveling Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions presently touring North America. While the alias "Charles Gadda" was not the puppet master's first alias, he became the central alias due to his presence on the NowPublic web site.

The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibitions

The following is a list of Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions since 1993.

History of the Campaign

Beginnings of Campaign

The campaign began with a common internet alias used by an individual on multiple message boards and discussion lists. The alias was engaged in academic debates concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in caves near the site of Khirbet Qumran. The puppet master engaged in debates concerning the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and regularly offered detailed and highly knowledgeable articulations of the theories of Dr. Golb, who argued in his book Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, that the Dead Sea Scrolls did not originate at Qumran, but from various libraries throughout Jerusalem. This theory challenged the traditional theory that argues that the scrolls were the product of Jewish sectarians living at Qumran. Dr. Golb's theories were discussed for a time by various scholars, but the academy largely rejected the theories of Dr. Golb, preferring the traditional Qumran-Essene theory.

Multiplication of Sock Puppets

Because few scholars accept Dr. Golb's views, debates on message boards and discussion groups often became rather one-sided, with the alias defending the views of Dr. Golb, while others argued for more widely accepted theories for the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. At some point, the puppet master began to create other aliases in order to create the illusion of a widespread support for Dr. Golb's views. The aliases often appeared immediately after one another on comments made by the original alias, and would often argue with the same vocabulary, grammar, style, and intimate knowledge of Dr. Golb's views. While this could be simply interpreted as two different individuals arguing on behalf of Dr. Golb, the evidence soon began to support the fact that one individual was logging in as multiple aliases in order to support Dr. Golb's ideas.

Now Public

The campaign to promote and defend the views of Dr. Golb reached a new level when alias "Charles Gadda" began to write items on the NowPublic web site. NowPublic is a hybrid news site where individuals can contribute "news items" as one would contribute posts to a blog. These news items are collected by editors and then used to populate the NowPublic home page, thus living up to their slogan, "crowd powered media." NowPublic offered the puppet master the advantage of having his "articles" picked up by Google News alerts. Thus, despite the bloggish nature of NowPublic's posts, they are passed on as legitimate news items on the internet.

Alias "Charles Gadda" began to utilize NowPublic as his central posting area. He then used emails, comments, and blogs to refer back to the "articles" he posted on NowPublic.

Below is a chart of the various NowPublic articles written by aliases "Charles Gadda" and "Peter Kaufman", followed by the date of the initial posting, the URL of the post, and the aliases mentioned by or commenting on the article:

• Note: NowPublic deleted all articles by alias "Charles Gadda" and alias"Peter Kaufman" on Mar 6, 2009.

Blogs

The puppet master has created a series of blogs in support of his NowPublic articles and letter writing campaign. The blogs offer another venue to promote and defend Dr. Golb's theories, and provide the added benefit of allowing the puppet master to harvest the IP addresses of those who happen to respond in the "Comments" section of the blogs. The known blog sites appear in chronological order below:

Message Boards

The puppet master continued his attacks against all who opposed the views of Norman Golb by promoting his efforts on the NowPublic site through paralleling the arguments on a number of message board sites. A list of the message boards and relevant posts are listed below.

• IIDB/FRDB = Internet Infidels/Free Thought and Rationalism Data Base (FRDB recently acquired IIDB.)

Emails

In addition to making comments on news items, the puppet master used aliases to initiate and propagate a series of anonymous email campaigns designed to discredit and disparage scholars involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. These emails were sent to scholars, university faculties, museum boards of directors, and various journalists and news organizations as demonstrated below. This is an ongoing campaign; the aliases are presently saturating the Toronto area with emails ahead of the arrival of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Royal Ontario Museum.

• Emails to Museums: The emails to museums draw attention to items written by alias "Charles Gadda" and Norman Golb, and sought to focus attention to the "controversy" surrounding the fact that Dr. Golb's theories about Qumran were not properly addressed by the exhibitions. The emails to museums criticized the museum directors for "ignoring" Dr. Golb's "contributions" to Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship and for not inviting Dr. Golb to speak at a number of "Distinguished Lecturer Series".

• Emails to Scholars: The emails sent to scholars took one of two forms. The first drew attention to the "controversy" surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions, and criticized particular scholars for their involvement in these "biased" exhibitions. These letters were usually sent to the members of the faculties for which a particular Dead Sea Scrolls scholar worked. The second type of email were attempts to bait particular scholars into responding to items that alias "Charles Gadda" or Dr. Golb had written. If the scholar responded to the email, that alias would continue the private exchange usually until that scholar ceased to respond, at which time, the entire exchange would be published on an alias' anonymous blog (i.e., the Bart Ehrman exchange).

• Emails to Media Representatives: The emails sent to media outlets and journalists usually attempted to draw their attention to a "conspiracy" or "controversy" surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. These emails were sent to local media organizations in cities in which the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions were to appear. The email campaign to local media outlets pointed journalists to posted items written by alias "Charles Gadda" and Norman Golb, along with links to published news items surrounding prior Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. The puppet master would regularly point to news items discussing the "controversy" surrounding the exhibitions - many of which were the result of earlier attempts by the puppet master to get local journalists in previous cities where the exhibitions appeared to write about the controversy. It should be noted that as the puppet master's email campaign to journalists began to be brought to the attention of the media outlets, many of the stories were retracted, edited, or pulled from the internet (cf. Fighting Back).

Letters to Museums

In addition to making comments on news items and sending emails, a number of typed letters were sent to each of the museums that hosted the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. The letters were similar in substance, grammar, and vocabulary to several of the NowPublic postings made by alias "Charles Gadda" and Norman Golb on the Oriental Institute web site. Each of the letters were mass mailed to each of the members of the museum board of directors and administrators. The letters criticized the exhibition primarily for not inviting Dr. Golb to speak as a part of the "Distinguished Lecturer Series", and for their 'one-sided approach' in their portrayal of the scrolls. Effectively, the letters cited several posts by Dr. Golb and alias "Charles Gadda", and accused the museums of presenting exhibitions that did not take into consideration Dr. Golb's claims. This phenomenon has occurred at every museum exhibiting the Dead Sea Scrolls dating back to as early as the Seattle exhibition.

Letters to Media Outlets

The puppet master's campaign reached full force when he began to write letters to various journalists, freelance writers, and media outlets touting the "controversy". Building on previous NowPublic posts, blogs, local newspaper stories, and the timely posts of Dr. Norman Golb, the puppet master began to write letters to media outlets encouraging them to investigate the controversy surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition that was soon coming to their local community. Many of these journalists ran stories that were largely informed by the writings of Dr. Golb and alias “Charles Gadda”. Once published, the local stories were touted by alias “Charles Gadda” in his subsequent posts. This process continued in every town usually until someone pointed out to the media organization publishing the story that it had become the victim of a media manipulation scheme perpetuated by the puppet master. Many media outlets responded by pulling their online stories or redaction portions of them (see Edited or Retracted Internet Items).

The Impersonation of Lawrence Schiffman

At some point, the puppet master began to adopt the names of known scholars and university alumni as aliases. The puppet master adopted several versions of the name of NYU Professor of Lawrence H. Schiffman, including , "larryschiffman", "Larry Schiffman", and "plagiarist-schiffman". The puppet master then used alias Peter Kaufman to create a NowPublic site entitled Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work? on Aug 4, 2008. The site oddly accused NYU Professor Lawrence Schiffman of plagiarizing from Norman Golb's work, despite the fact that the two completely disagree on the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Creating the NowPublic site was not enough. The puppet master then emailed Larry Schiffman from email steven.fishbane@gmail.com drawing Dr. Schiffman's attention to alias "Peter Kaufman's" Now Public story and attempting to bait him into responding. When Dr. Schiffman did not respond, the puppet master tried another tactic. The puppet master created the gmail account larry.schiffman@gmail.com and emailed Dr. Schiffman's graduate students, pretending to be Dr. Schiffman. The email pointed out alias "Peter Kaufman's" Now Public story, and asked his four graduate assistants "not to mention the name of the scholar in question to any of our students, and every effort must be made to prevent this article from coming to their attention". Once the graduate students pointed out the suspicious email to Dr. Schiffman, Dr. Schiffman reported the matter to NYU officials.

Fighting Back

As more and more scholars, universities, museums, and organizations were attacked by the puppet master and his aliases, several individuals began to track the campaign. (This how I came to begin tracking the puppet master and the aliases.)

Edited or Retracted Internet Items

As media outlets, bloggers, and journalists were made aware of the puppet master's campaign, several entities (often prompted by letters from scholars, lawyers, or both) began to retract their posts on the internet.

• Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

Editor Rick Hellman wrote an article entitled Scholar disputes Dead Sea Scrolls orthodoxy, which describes Norman Golb's views on Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The article is still in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle's Search Results, but the article has been removed.

• Vox Populi

A post by alias Robert Dworkin on the blog site Vox Populi entitled, The Ethics of Exhibition: Romancing the Scrolls by Robert Dworkin. The article bemoans the DSS exhibits in the US, repeats many of the arguments made by alias “Charles Gadda” and promotes Dr. Norman Golb by name.

The article was removed when it was discovered that alias Robert Dworkin was fictional.

• Indyweek.com

An article by Brian Howe entitled Unraveling the continuing mystique of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Torn and Frayed quoted a portion of a blog by alias Robert Dworkin.

The portion of the article quoting alias Robert Dworkin was struck through (see the ninth paragraph) after it was pointed out to the editors in the comments section and via email that alias Robert Dworkin was a fictional alias of the puppet master.

• National Post (Toronto)

Adam McDowell of the National Post wrote a story entitled Dead Sea Scrolls to unroll at Royal Ontario Museum next year about the "controversy" surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition coming to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The articles were written after the receipt of letters from one of the puppet master's aliases.

Some iterations of the articles (note that there are related stories, but no actual text where the story should be) were removed form the web site after it was realized that the entire article was written at the urging of an alias of the puppet master.

The National Post has recently released an article by Chris Boutet entitled Transcript: Q&A with Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn on Dead Sea Scrolls controversy.

• Oriental Institute

Norman Golb posted a review of Dr. Robert Cargill's unpublished script for a movie entitled Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour on the Oriental Institute web site. after requesting a copy for review. The review, entitled 2007 Article “The So-Called “Virtual Reality Tour” at the 2007 San Diego Scrolls Exhibit” contained several excerpts of Dr. Cargill's script, despite warnings on the cover of the script not to reproduce any portion of the manuscript.

The Oriental Institute decided to remove Dr. Golb's article on Feb. 26, 2009.

• NowPublic

NowPublic finally removed the posts of aliases “Charles Gadda” and "Peter Kaufman" after only two years of me warning them on Mar 6, 2009, after the arrest of Norman Golb's son, Raphael Golb

• San Diego Jewish World

The San Diego Jewish World issued a welcomed apology to Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn. Several scholars responded to the letter. The San Diego Jewish world also took the unprecedented step of removing 4 articles from their online archives.

• View from Number 80

The British author of the web site "The View from Number 80", Ross W. Sargent, recently published a post entitled "The Man Who Wasn't There," where he explains how he had received several letters from alias "Sarah Epstein" linking to comments by alias “Charles Gadda”. Mr. Sargent left the posts on his website, but amended several posts mentioning alias “Charles Gadda” with an update linking to this page and to his post pointing out the campain undertaken by Raphael Golb. He also commented on the puppet master's use of the alias "View from Here," noting it was an alias chosen, "too close to this site's name to be a coincidence and no doubt deliberately employed to create confusion."

• Menachem Mendel

Menachem Mendel removed comments on his website left by alias “Charles Gadda” that attempted to cast Robert Cargill and several others as anti-Semitic because they conclude that a sect of Jews lived at Qumran and were responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• San Diego Blogs

San Diego Blogs removed three blog sites created by alias “Charles Gadda” as mirrors of his now defunct NowPublic sites. These sites were removed on April 3, 2009.

Wikipedia

The puppet master attempted to infiltrate several articles on Wikipedia in order to promote his campaign. Since Wikipedia is a popular reference site for members of the public to learn about just about anything, the puppet master began to edit several articles pertaining to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. These articles include the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran, Norman Golb, and the San Diego Natural History Museum. Additionally, the puppet master attempted to spread his arguments on the pages of scholars involved in the exhibitions, including UCLA professor William Schniedewind (and his talk page), and even my personal user page, IsraelXKV8R and my talk page.

However, Wikipedia has very strict regulations against sock puppetry and meat puppetry. As a part of the appeals process, several administrators with the power to check the IP addresses of users (a power unavailable to non-admins) began to check the IP addresses of the suspected sock puppets of the puppet master. Once the Wikipedia administrators confirmed that the same IP addresses were being used to sign in as multiple aliases and to promote and defend the views of Norman Golb, and to defame and criticize scholars with opposing views and those Wikipedia users who contested the actions of the puppet master's aliases, the Wikipedia administrators banned the aliases from participation on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Aliases

Over the course of their investigation (ticket #2007112710018004), wikipedia administrators determined that in addition to the aliases the puppet master used on the internet, the puppet master created a number of aliases for explicit use on Wikipedia. Many of the aliases were deleted by the puppet master in an attempt to cover his tracks, while others were later deleted by wikipedia. However, since Wikipedia preserves everything ever entered in its pages, records of these aliases remain. These aliases include:

1. "Critical Reader" User_talk:Critical_Reader (created Oct. 5, 2006)
2. "Ethical concern" User_talk:Ethical_Concern (created 10:30, Aug. 1, 2007)
3. "Harold Milton" User_talk:Harold_Milton (created 21:32, Nov. 16, 2007)
4. "Phillip Kirby" User_talk:Phillip_Kirby (created 14:12, Nov. 19, 2007)
5. "David Saunderfeld" User_talk:David_Saunderfeld (created 19:02, Nov. 21, 2007)
6. "Jacob Stein" User_talk:Jacob_Stein (created 10:10, Nov. 24, 2007)
7. "Myriamyst" User_talk:Myriamyst (created 20:39, Nov. 29, 2007)
8. "Extratheologian" User_talk:Extratheologian (created 12:48, November 29, 2007)
9. "Rachel.Greenberg" User_talk:Rachel.Greenberg (created 12:22, February 9, 2009)

Using Literary Criticism to Catch an Alias

In addition to the use of IP addresses to confirm some of the puppet master's Wikipedia aliases, literary criticism was employed to demonstrate that alias "Rachel.Greenberg" was an alias of alias "Charles Gadda". As a part of a sock puppetry investigation, the following evidence was presented to the Wikipedia administrators.

Tracking and Linking the Aliases

Methodology

The methodology used to track and link the aliases is straightforward. Because the puppet master used the same aliases in multiple formats (i.e., email, written letters, blog posts, etc.), it was possible to compare the names and IP addresses to those used by other aliases. A strong case can be made by examining the posts, emails, and letters as literature. Written items that possess the same subject matter, make the same argument of defense, possess intimate knowledge of the argument, use the same language and vocabulary, employ the same grammatical tendencies and punctuation (use of double or emasculated dashes, e.g. vs. i.e., [brackets], paragraph spacing and numbering, etc.), argue with the same litigious fervor, link to the same documents (posts by alias "Charles Gadda" and Norman Golb), possess a knowledge of every media item of discussing the controversy (especially those that discuss or favor Norman Golb), and claim authorship by an author employing a "first_last" name structure of a traditionally Jewish sounding name all suggest that the aliases can be linked together with some degree of certainty. However, those items that can be traced to an IP address can be said to be definitely linked together by hard evidence.

An IP address is a number that is unique to every computer used on a given network. These IP addresses accompany every internet post made, email sent, or web page viewed. While the puppet master has gotten better at disguising his IP addresses today, he seems to have been unaware of IP addresses early in his campaign. If two emails discussing the same subject matter from the same point of view and linking to the same articles by alias "Charles Gadda" and Norman Golb are sent from two different email accounts, but from the same unique IP address, and often within a few minutes of each other, then there is hard evidence suggesting that the same individual employed two different aliases and email accounts. This is done to create the illusion that several people are promoting and defending the argument or ideology, when in reality, there is only one person responsible for all of the aliases. This tactic is also employed by individuals who want to remain anonymous perhaps due to the fact that were it known that he or she was promoting his or her own views or those of a relative, it would be interpreted as shameless self-promotion. Additionally, because many of the posted items are vicious or attacking in nature, and many attack their victims in a personal, libelous, defaming, anti-religious, unprofessional, and perhaps illegal manner, the exposure of the individual behind the aliases may lead to numerous law suits and legal proceedings.

Tracking Tools

Three tools available online were used to trace the IP addresses used by the puppet master.

1. What Is My IP Address.com
2. DNS Stuff.com TraceRoute tool
3. Find IP Address.org
4. Wikipedia's CheckUser tool (available to Wikipedia administrators as a part of their anti-sock puppet prevention campaign)

The results were confirmed against a map of the NYU Bobst Library indicating the location of the 24-hour "Productivity" computing lab. The Bobst Library is located here.

Confirmed IP Addresses

The following IP addresses have been confirmed by multiple methods to have been used by the puppet master in his campaign against those scholars who happen to disagree with the views of Norman Golb. The IP addresses are listed and linked to a "traceroute" utility that actually maps the IP address to a physical address. As you will note, many of the IP addresses were used by multiple aliases, and all of the IP addresses trace to within a block from the NYU Bobst Library, if not from inside it.

69.86.34.90

69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

• This is the only IP address used that does not trace back to NYU. It has been traced to an address a few blocks from the university. Because it was the first alias used by the puppet master, it is believed that this alias is the puppet master's home or work computer. The residential Mindspring cable modem high speed service that services the IP address supports this conclusion.
• This IP address was uses by alias "Charles Gadda" to email the UCLA Media Relations department.
• This IP address was uses by alias "Charles Gadda" to leave comments on a blog site of Dr. Jim West.
• This IP address was used by alias "J.Friedman" to post to a post on the First Followers blog entitled Carbon dating of linen shrouds; different periods...? on Dec 1, 2007. The blog posts IP address information in the source code. The source code reads as follows (cf. image):

 <UserAgent>Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)</UserAgent> 
 <RemoteHost>127.0.0.1</RemoteHost> 
 <RemoteAddr>127.0.0.1</RemoteAddr> 
 <ForwardedFor>69.86.34.90</ForwardedFor> 
 </RemoteInfo>
 </ItemProperties>

• This IP address was used by alias "Paul Kessler" to post messages signed in the ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroups as confirmed by ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroup administrators.
• This IP address was used by alias "Don Matthews" to post comments to a Korea Times story on Dec. 4, 2007. The IP address 69.86.34.90 was listed next to the comment. The original Korea Times article has since been removed, along with its comments, and replaced by its archived copy.
• This IP address was used by alias "Leonard Davies" to post comments on Jim West’s blog story about Norman Golb’s review of Robert Cargill’s film, Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour. The comments are posted within 5 minutes of the posting of Norman Golb's review, and are nearly identical to the comments made on Chris Heard’s blog by alias “Martin Elderling”.
• This IP address was used by alias “Martin Elderling” to post comments on Jim West’s blog story about Norman Golb’s review of Robert Cargill’s film, Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour. The comments are posted within 5 minutes of the posting of Norman Golb's review, and are nearly identical to the comments made on Chris Heard’s blog by alias "Leonard Davies".

128.122.88.28

128.122.88.28 (=productivity-17.bobst.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to the NYU Bobst Library. Specifically, it points to a computer in the 24-hour "Productivity" computer lab at the NYU Bobst Library.
• This IP address was confirmed by Wikipedia administrators.

128.122.88.131

128.122.88.131 (= respc3.bobst.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to the NYU Bobst Library.
• This IP address was used by alias "Steve Frankel" to send an email to George Washington University Professor Eric Cline.
• This IP address was used by alias "Steve Frankel" to email the ANE-2 group

128.122.89.50

128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to the NYU Bobst Library. Specifically, it points to a computer in the 24-hour "Productivity" computer lab at the NYU Bobst Library.
• This IP address was used by alias "Don Matthews" to send an email to University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Professor Jodi Magness d_matthews52@yahoo.com.
• This IP address was used by alias "Don Matthews" to send an email to George Washington University Professor Eric Cline from email address d_matthews52@yahoo.com.
• This IP address was used by alias "Joshua Reznik to send an email from joshua.reznick@yahoo.com to the faculty of the UCLA NELC Dept. The contents of the email were nearly identical to an email sent by alias “Steve Frankel” from the same IP address 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu).
• This IP address was used by alias "Steve Blau" to email the ANE-2 Newsgroup from blau.steve@yahoo.com as confirmed by the ANE-2 Yahoo Newsgroup from as confirmed by the group administrators.

128.122.89.83

128.122.89.83 (= imac03-bobst-a.pubterm.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to the NYU Bobst Library.
• This IP address was used by alias "Steve Frankel" to email the ANE-2 group.

128.122.89.93

128.122.89.93 (= static2.bobst.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to the NYU Bobst Library.
• This IP address was used by alias "Steve Frankel" to send an email to George Washington University Professor Eric Cline.

128.122.89.191

128.122.89.191 (=imac24-bobst-a.pubterm.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to the NYU Bobst Library.
• This IP address was confirmed by Wikipedia administrators to be used by alias Rachel.Greenberg. The archive of the sock puppet case is here

216.165.95.64

216.165.95.64 (=nyufga-nyupriv-01.natpool.nyu.edu)

• This IP address traces back to NYU.
• This IP address was confirmed by Wikipedia administrators.
• This IP address was used by alias "Steve Blau" to post to the ANE-2 Yahoo Newsgroup from as confirmed by the group administrators.

Confirmed Aliases

The following is a list of confirmed aliases. The aliases have been traced by IP addresses taken from emails, blog posts, or administrators of web sites, and have been cross-linked against an IP address used by at least one other alias.

Charles (Carlo) Gadda

Email: carlogadda@yahoo.com

IP address: 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

Activity:

• This alias left comments on a post on Jim West's blog. Jim West did not approve the comment, but confirmed that the comments stated the following:

A new comment on the post #2271 "Qumran: Warrior Central?" is waiting for your approval http://drjimwest.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/qumran-warrior-central/ Author : Charles Gadda (IP: 69.86.34.90 , user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com) E-mail : carlogadda@yahoo.com Comment: This is nonsense, Jim, and you know it--you should not feel good about taking sides on this issue and censoring one side of the story instead of allowing free and open discussion. My Nowpublic response to Cargill exposes the weedling, mendacious nature of his posting--it should have appeared here.

• This alias sent an email to Jim West from IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com).
• This alias sent an email from address carlogadda@yahoo.com to the UCLA Media Relations department. The email was signed by alias "Charles Gadda". The email traces to IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com) utilized by subsequent aliases. A firewall has since been installed at this IP address.
• This alias made a peculiar defense of Norman Golb's critique of Robert Cargill's unpublished script on the "Free thought and Rationalism discussion board", invoking the principle of "fair use", and arguing that the script was, in fact, "published" because it was read aloud daily. This alias argues:

"Unless I'm unaware of something, there wouldn't appear to be any copyright violation here at all, since one can only presume that Golb, by the basic principle of fair use, was perfectly entitled to cite the script to discuss the claims that were being read out loud to some 450,000 people at a six-million-dollar museum exhibit, as well as the ethics of that exhibit itself. (Incidentally, what enables you to say this script was "unfinished," when it was being read aloud every day to all those people? And if there are certain things that Robert is careful "never to write down," how could he ever truly "finish" the script?)"

The alias fails to note that Norman Golb never saw the movie (and was therefore quoting from the unpublished script), and makes distinct reference to a marginal note that was never read to the audience. Thus, the review was indeed of the unpublished script (and not the movie), and cited portions of the script that were inherently not designed to be "published" in any sense - written or verbal. (For an archived transcription of the exchange, see here.)

• This alias made comments on a North County Times article by Kirby Fairfax entitled Dead Sea Scrolls: Long-awaited exhibit offers sights, sounds, smells and samples. The comments also contained comments by alias "Suzanne" (“Suzanne Shapiro”).
• This alias left a barrage of comments on Claude Mariottini’s blog on a story entitled Christ’s Tomb Found?. This alias' comments immediately follow a barrage of comments made by alias “Suzanne Shapiro” and link to written pieces by Dr. Norman Golb.
• This alias made a comment on the MSNBC forum entitled Dead Sea Scrolls Forum.

Jessica Friedman

Email: J.Friedman47@gmail.com

IP address: 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

Activity:

• This alias made a comment on a SignOnSanDiego.com news item entitled Multitudes expected to view biblical history on June 28, 2007 that echoes the complaints of alias “Charles Gadda’s”. This alias mentions Dr. Norman Golb by name and refers to an LA Times article by Mike Boehm entitled A lively debate over the Dead Sea Scrolls.
• In a comment on June 30, 2007, “Jessica Friedman” replies to criticism that she and alias “Charles Gadda” are the same person by responding, “the two of us have simply decided to divide the labor of informing the public, since it is exhausting to cut and paste the same information over and over again and both of us have lives.” This comment is followed by comments by alias “Robert Dworkin,” who links readers to a Chronology of the Dead Sea Scrolls blog. This alias appears along with comments by alias “Suzanne Shapiro,” who also provides links to Dr. Norman Golb’s articles.
• This alias posted a blog using the alias “View from Here” which is tied to the email address J.Friedman47@gmail.com.
• This alias' email address (J.Friedman47@gmail.com) was used to initiate a tech-archive.net discussion entitled New article exposes Qumran "virtual reality" film scam. However, the post is signed by alias "View from Here". The post links to an article posted on the Oriental Institute web site by Dr. Norman Golb entitled 2007 Article “The So-Called “Virtual Reality Tour” at the 2007 San Diego Scrolls Exhibit”. The OI removed Dr. Golb's article on Feb 26, 2009.
• This alias sent an email to Christian Brady.
• The alias "J.Friedman" posted a post on the First Followers blog entitled Carbon dating of linen shrouds; different periods...? on Dec 1, 2007 from IP address 69.86.34.90. The blog posts IP address information in the source code. The source code reads as follows (cf. image):

 <UserAgent>Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)</UserAgent> 
 <RemoteHost>127.0.0.1</RemoteHost> 
 <RemoteAddr>127.0.0.1</RemoteAddr> 
 <ForwardedFor>69.86.34.90</ForwardedFor> 
 </RemoteInfo>
 </ItemProperties>

Paul Kessler

Email: kessler_paul@yahoo.com

IP address: 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

Activity:

 

• This alias created strings on the “Discarded Lies” message boards here and here and here. On these strings, alias “Paul Kessler” posted links to several of alias “Charles Gadda’s” NowPublic articles, and posted multiple comments consistent with alias “Charles Gadda”.
• This alias posted messages in the ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroups from IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com) as confirmed by ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroup administrators.
• After being banished from the ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroup, this alias harvested the email list of the group and sent an email to the harvested list. The email was sent from kessler_paul@yahoo.com and was sent from IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com).

Don Matthews aka DonMatthews52

Email: d_matthews52@yahoo.com

IP address: 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu)

IP address: 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

Activity:

• This alias was used to post comments to this Korea Times story on Dec. 4, 2007. The IP address was listed next to the comment. This IP address matches the IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com) previously identified with alias “Charles Gadda’s” posts and emails. The Korea Times article has since been removed.
• This alias was also used in an email to University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Professor Jodi Magness d_matthews52@yahoo.com 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu).
• This alias was also used to send an email to George Washington University Professor Eric Cline from email address d_matthews52@yahoo.com from IP address 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu).

Steve Frankel

Email: frankel.steve@yahoo.com

Email: steve.frankel2@gmail.com

IP address: 128.122.88.131 (= respc3.bobst.nyu.edu)

IP address: 128.122.89.93 (= static2.bobst.nyu.edu)

IP address: 128.122.89.83 (= imac03-bobst-a.pubterm.nyu.edu)

Activity:

• This alias claimed to be a UCLA alumnus and emailed letters to faculty of the UCLA NELC Dept. on two occasions (here and here) from email addresses frankel.steve@yahoo.com and steve.frankel2@gmail.com arguing that Robert Cargill’s dissertation prospectus be rejected.
• This alias was also used to send an email to George Washington University Professor Eric Cline IP address 128.122.88.131 (= respc3.bobst.nyu.edu).
• This alias was used again to email to George Washington University Professor Eric Cline from a different IP address 128.122.89.93 (= static2.bobst.nyu.edu).
• This alias was used again to email the ANE-2 group from IP address 128.122.89.83 (= imac03-bobst-a.pubterm.nyu.edu).
• This alias was used again to email the ANE-2 group from IP address 128.122.88.131 (= respc3.bobst.nyu.edu).

Leonard Davies

IP address: 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on Jim West’s blog story about Norman Golb’s review of Robert Cargill’s film, Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour. The comments are posted from IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com) within 5 minutes of the posting of Norman Golb's review, and are nearly identical to the comments made on Chris Heard’s blog by alias “Martin Elderling” from the same IP address 69.86.34.90.

Martin Elderling

IP address: 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com)

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on an article entitled "Seen at the SBL" on Chris Heard’s Higgaion blog moments after Dr. Norman Golb posted his review of Robert Cargill’s movie script to the Oriental Institute’s website. Chris Heard confirmed the IP address as 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com), which is identical to an IP address used by alias “Charles Gadda”. These comments were left at nearly the same time and are identical to comments left at Jim West's blog, who confirmed the same IP address 69.86.34.90 (= user-12lc8iq.cable.mindspring.com), but using a different alias "Leonard Davies".
• This alias also made comments on an article here, which were critical of the NC DSS exhibit and Bart Ehrman.

Joshua Reznik

Email: joshua.reznick@yahoo.com

IP address: 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu.)

Activity:

• This alias sent an email from joshua.reznick@yahoo.com to UCLA NELC department chair Elizabeth Carter rambling about the Ancient Qumran movie that Robert Cargill created. This alias sent another email from joshua.reznick@yahoo.com to the faculty of the UCLA NELC Dept. The contents of the email were nearly identical to an email sent by alias “Steve Frankel” from the same IP address 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu).

Steve Blau

Email: blau.steve@yahoo.com

IP address: 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu.)

Activity:

• This alias was used to email the ANE-2 news group from blau.steve@yahoo.com from IP address 128.122.89.50 (= productivity-4.bobst.nyu.edu.)
• This alias made second post to the ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroup from IP address 216.165.95.64 (= nyufga-nyupriv-01.natpool.nyu.edu).

Peter Kaufman

IP address: NowPublic

Activity:

• This alias was used to create a NowPublic account. The account posted a single article entitled, "Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work?". The article accuses New York University Professor Larwence Schiffman of plagiarism. The account was put under review as a sock puppet of alias “Charles Gadda” after NowPublic received several complaints of sock puppetry and libel from numerous readers. The account has apparently been locked, but the article has still not been removed.
  

Confirmed Wikipedia Aliases

Critical Reader

"Critical Reader" User_talk:Critical_Reader (created Oct. 5, 2006)

This alias was used to edit the contents of many Wikipedia pages related to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Additionally, this alias made lengthy arguments on behalf of the views of Norman Golb on pages including Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Norman Golb, William Schniedewind, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour, the San Diego Natural History Museum, my IsraelXKV8R talk page. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.

• View alias "Critical Reader's" user contributions.
• This alias also left comments on a Discovery Channel blog entitled Chicago professor weighs in on Jesus claim.

Ethical concern

"Ethical concern" User_talk:Ethical_concern (created 10:30, Aug. 1, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on my IsraelXKV8R talk page. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "Ethical concern's" user contributions.

Harold Milton

"Harold Milton" User_talk:Harold_Milton (created 21:32, Nov. 16, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on my IsraelXKV8R talk page. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "Harold Milton's" user contributions.

Phillip Kirby

"Phillip Kirby" User_talk:Phillip_Kirby (created 14:12, Nov. 19, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on the William Schniedewind and Norman Golb Wikipedia pages. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "Phillip Kirby's" user contributions.

David Saunderfeld

"David Saunderfeld" User_talk:David_Saunderfeld (created 19:02, Nov. 21, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on the William Schniedewind and Norman Golb Wikipedia pages. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "David Saunderfeld's" user contributions.

Jacob Stein

"Jacob Stein" User_talk:Jacob_Stein (created 10:10, Nov. 24, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on the William Schniedewind and Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour Wikipedia pages. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "Jacob Stein's" user contributions.

Myriamyst

"Myriamyst" User_talk:Myriamyst (created 20:39, Nov. 29, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on the San Diego Natural History Museum Wikipedia page. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "Myriamyst's" user contributions.

Extratheologian

"Extratheologian" User_talk:Extratheologian (created 12:48, November 29, 2007)

• This alias was used as a sock puppet to support alias "Critical Reader" in his support for the views of Norman Golb on the San Diego Natural History Museum Wikipedia page. The alias was confirmed as a sock puppet of alias "Charles Gadda" and banished from Wikipedia.
• View alias "Extratheologian's" user contributions.

Rachel Greenberg

"Rachel.Greenberg" User_talk:Rachel.Greenberg (created 12:22, February 9, 2009)

IP address: 216.165.95.64 (=nyufga-nyupriv-01.natpool.nyu.edu)

IP address: 128.122.89.191 (=imac24-bobst-a.pubterm.nyu.edu)

Activity:

• This Wikipedia alias was involved in an edit war on the Dead Sea Scrolls Wikipedia page. This alias was attempting to insert material that highlighted controversy and linked to several articles and posts by Norman Golb. An edit war that took place, which resulted in alias “Rachel.Greenberg” being banished from Wikipedia as a sock puppet of Wikipedia alias "Critical Reader". The archive of the sock puppet case is here.
• View alias "Rachel.Greenberg's" user contributions.
  
  

Suspected Aliases

Raphael aka Raffa105

Email: raffa105@yahoo.com

Email: raphael.g@...

Comment: This alias is the earliest known alias used. It appears with the Seattle DSS exhibition and argues for a "scientific" or "neutral" exhibition.

Comment: SEE NOTE ON THE MAR. 5, 2009 ARREST OF RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB

Activity:

• This alias makes several technical points in defense of Norman Golb on the Free Republic message boards. The Free Republic account is tied to the email raffa105@yahoo.com.
• The alias "Raffa105" made a post at on a Free Republic post entitled "Latrines of the Essenes?" on Jan 3, 2007. The post links to the The Dead Sea Scrolls in Seattle and San Diego blog by alias "We Demand A Neutral Scientific Exhibit".
• This alias was used to post a comment on a Claude Mariottini blog post. The username leads to a "Raphael" profile page. Clicking on the “Honesty in Science” link leads to a registered, but unused blog entitled "Honesty in Science". Honesty and neutrality in science was a nearly theme of the puppet master, as he understood the DSS exhibitions to be 'unscientific' because they did not accept the views of Norman Golb.
• This alias also left a response on a different Claude Mariottini’s blog post, where he defends Norman Golb and offers knowledgeable insight about Norman Golb’s positions.
• This alias posted a message on the JumbaJews Yahoo News Group entitled Free lecture on Dead Sea Scrolls next week -- please announce, dist on Wed, Mar 22, 2006. The post promotes a lecture by '"world-renowned historian" Norman Golb. The alias "Raphael" lists his email address as raphael.g@.... The post reads:

Norman Golb, Professor of Jewish History and Civilization at the University of Chicago and author of Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? (Scribner, 1995), will speak on "The Dead Sea Scrolls Controversy : How it Happened and Where it Stands Today". This lecture, by a world-renowned historian, will be open to the public, illustrated by slides, and will take place on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 at 6 PM in the Low Memorial Library, Faculty Room, Columbia University, 116th Street & Broadway. There is no charge for admission and a reception will follow the lecture.

Saul Kaplan

Comment: This alias is a registered NowPublic single purpose alias whose only activity has been comments that praise articles posted by alias “Charles Gadda”.

Activity:

• This alias commented on alias “Charles Gadda’s” NowPublic article entitled, "Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit misleads public?", where he mentions Norman Golb by name. He mentions that “a friend of mine emailed the Waitt Foundation (one of exhibit's main funders), referring them to the review and suggesting that the foundation's money might have been misused.” The misuse of money is a common theme, in that the puppet master understands any funds used in the exhibitions that do not support Norman Golb's theories to be used in the perpetuation of a lie.
• This alias makes lengthy comments on alias “Charles Gadda’s” NowPublic article entitled, "Jesus, Judas, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: peddling religious sensationalism in America", where he copies a post by "The View from Number 80" that mentioned alias “Charles Gadda. The posting at "The View from Number 80" has since been removed.
• This alias makes comments on alias “Charles Gadda’s” NowPublic article entitled "Charity fund involved in Dead Sea Scrolls conflict", praising alias “Charles Gadda” and linking to comments by "The View from Number 80". The posting at "The View from Number 80" has since been removed. Steve Mason wrote a lengthy response to alias “Charles Gadda’s” article.
• This alias made a comment on a NowPublic article by alias “Charles Gadda’s” entitled 3-D film dogged by "unwritten" story of misleading claims

David Kaplan

Email: david88kaplan@gmail.com

Activity:

• This alias sent an email to UCLA Dean Tim Stowell to complain about this very page from email address david88kaplan@gmail.com. In the email, alias "David Kaplan" poses as a UC Berkeley alum, but misspells the name of the university as "Berkley". The email mentions Norman Golb several times by name, and links to several NowPublic articles by alias “Charles Gadda”.

Robert Dworkin

Email: robertdworkin@gmail.com

Activity:

• This alias posted on comments on a letter to the editor written by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled "The Other Side of the Scrolls". The comments were consistent with statements made by alias “Charles Gadda” elsewhere. The comments are joined by comments from aliases “Charles Gadda”, "niki w.", “Tanya Fischer”, "Tuesday Kuykendall", "prying1", and "Larry Schiffman".
• This alias made comments on a SignOnSanDiego.com news item by Sandi Dolbee entitled Multitudes expected to view biblical history, where alias “Jessica Friedman” also made comments. This alias accused commenter “rolanddevaux” of being Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn. This alias praises Dr. Norman Golb and Rachel Elior by name. This alias’ comments are followed by comments made by aliases “Jessica Friedman” and “Suzanne Shapiro”.
• This alias made a comment quoting alias “Charles Gadda” on a Jerusalem Post blog, entitled Jewlicious: Phenomenal Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition in San Diego. The comments were followed by comments from alias Joanne Dahlberg praising alias “Charles Gadda” and his work to "expose" the link between "Christian fundamentalist scholars" and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions.
• This alias wrote an article on the blog site Vox Populi entitled, The Ethics of Exhibition: Romancing the Scrolls by Robert Dworkin. The article bemoans the DSS exhibits in the US, repeats many of the arguments made by alias “Charles Gadda” and promotes Dr. Norman Golb by name. The article was removed when it was discovered that alias Robert Dworkin was, in fact, fictional. Alias ""'s article was reposted on an the anonymous Robertdworkin's WordPress Webblog.
• This alias sent an email to George washington University Professor Eric Cline on Oct 26, 2007 from email address robertdworkin@gmail.com. The message read:

Dear Professor Cline, I write to call your attention to an article I just read that raises a number of disturbing questions concerning an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls taking place in San Diego. http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/did-christian-agenda-lead-biased-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-san-diego Best, Robert Dworkin

• This alias sent an email to George washington University Professor Eric Cline on Dec 6, 2007 from email address robertdworkin@gmail.com. The message read:

Dear Professor Cline, I have come across a somewhat disturbing exchange, concerning a number of lectures given by Dr. Jodi Magness at the SBL and ASOR meetings. You can see the exchange here: http://neonostalgia.com/weblog/?p=371#comments. As you will see, it is being alleged that Dr. Magness was invited by both SBL and ASOR to give lectures on the "Current State of Qumran Archaeology" without any of her archaeological opponents being invited to respond to her in either venue; that this amounted to an endorsement of a particular, and controversial, point of view by the planners of the two conferences; and that this joint action was apparently instigated, at least in part, by the directors of a foundation that has financial control over ASOR. Since you are a prominent figure at ASOR and were present at one of the sessions at which Dr. Magness spoke, I am wondering if you would mind taking a moment to briefly respond to the allegations. Despite the appearances, I myself find it hard to believe that the directors of ASOR and SBL would intentionally take sides in a scientific debate by excluding one point of view while prominently featuring the other. When arranging the plenary session, did ASOR know that Dr. Magness would be delivering the same lecture at SBL, and that there too her opponents would not be invited? Which committee at ASOR arranged for Dr. Magness' lecture, and what motivated the decision to have her speak without inviting any of the scholars who have rejected her views? With best wishes, Robert Dworkin

• This alias sent a letter to a member of the board of the San Diego Natural History Museum. The letter complained that no supporter of the Jerusalem theory of Dead Sea Scrolls origins had been invited to speak in the lecture series accompanying the exhibit. The letter possesses double dashes [--] and ends with a distinctive, I am line followed by the signature line of the letter, similar to that used by alias “Charles Gadda” in an email and distinctive of signed letters sent by Norman Golb to the UCLA Provost.

Joanne Dahlberg

Activity:

• This alias made a comment quoting alias “Charles Gadda” on a Jerusalem Post blog, entitled Jewlicious: Phenomenal Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition in San Diego praising alias “Charles Gadda” and his work to "expose" the link between "Christian fundamentalist scholars" and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. The comments followed by comments from alias Robert Dworkin.

Tanya Fischer

Activity:

• This alias posted on comments on a letter to the editor written by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled "The Other Side of the Scrolls". The comments provide a link to a NowPublic article by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled Christian Fundamentalism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego. The link was broken when alias “Charles Gadda” renamed the link: http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/christian-fundamentalism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-san-diego. The comments are joined by comments from aliases “Charles Gadda”, "Robert Dworkin", "Tuesday Kuykendall", "prying1", and "Larry Schiffman.

prying1

Activity:

• This alias posted on comments on a letter to the editor written by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled "The Other Side of the Scrolls". The comments criticized San Diego Dead seas Scrolls exhibit curator Dr. Risa Levitt-Kohn. The comments are joined by comments from aliases “Charles Gadda”, "Robert Dworkin", “Tanya Fischer”, "niki w.", "Tuesday Kuykendall", and "Larry Schiffman.

niki w

Activity:

• This alias posted on comments on a letter to the editor written by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled "The Other Side of the Scrolls". The comments criticized San Diego Dead seas Scrolls exhibit curator Dr. Risa Levitt-Kohn. The comments are joined by comments from aliases “Charles Gadda”, "Robert Dworkin", “Tanya Fischer”, "Tuesday Kuykendall", "prying1", and "Larry Schiffman".

Steven Fishbane

Email: steven.fishbane@gmail.com

Activity:

• This alias emailed New York University Professor Lawrence Schiffman in an attempt to bait him into responding to a NowPublic post by alias Peter Kaufman.

Albert White

Activity:

• This alias left a comment on this Indyweek.com article entitled Unraveling the continuing mystique of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Torn and Frayed, stating:

I'm amazed the editors agreed to censor this article, responding to spurious, undemonstrable claims based on some wikipedia squabble that didn't even concern the author in question. The classic tactic of people engaged in a smear campaign: use sockpuppet aliases, and accuse your victims of doing the same thing. That traditional "Qumran-Essene" scrolls scholars and their graduate students would resort to such phony tactics to try and discredit a point of view they disagree with, says a lot about current academic standards in this area. "Raphael" and "Joel" happen to be the names of family relations of Hebrew manuscripts scholar Norman Golb, who are active professionals with their own jobs and lives. The smear campaign against a distinguished Jewish historian and his family thus continues, right here on this site, while the third-rate scholar who plagiarized Golb has been honored with an invitation to lecture at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. by Albert White

 

• It is suspected that he is the one behind emails to several New York area news outlets, highlighting the controversy and asking the reporters to interview Norman Golb.

• This alias left a comment on a Newsvine.com article entitled "Palin: Pakistan remark was a response to a voter" which attempts to link Sarah Palin to DSS exhibition curator Risa Levitt-Kohn and linking to a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda".
• This alias left a comment on a New York Times.com article entitled "P.S. Palin Apologizes" which attempts to link Sarah Palin to DSS exhibition curator Risa Levitt-Kohn and linking to a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled "Did Christian agenda lead to biased Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit?".

Suzanne Shapiro

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a North County Times article by Kirby Fairfax entitled Dead Sea Scrolls: Long-awaited exhibit offers sights, sounds, smells and samples. The comments also contained comments by alias "Charles" (“Charles Gadda”).
• This alias also made several comments on Claude Mariottini’s blog on a story entitled Christ’s Tomb Found?. This alias' comments immediately follow a barrage of comments made by alias “Charles Gadda” and link to written pieces by Dr. Norman Golb.
• This alias made comments on a Topix news item entitled “A Lively Debate over the Dead Sea Scrolls.” This alias’ comment argues on behalf of Dr. Norman Golb. “Suzanne Shapiro’s” comments appear after comments made by aliases “Charles Gadda” and “Sarah Epstein.”
• This alias made a comment on a “Putting Out the Fire” blog story entitled “The Tomb of Jesus.” This comment followed a comment by alias "Charles Gadda” and interesting linked to an article on Dr. Norman Golb’s OI website about the DSS, even though the blog story was about the tomb of Jesus.
• This alias’ comments on this blog and links to a critique of the Pacific Science Center blog. This alias’ comments are followed by comments made by aliases “Jessica Friedman” and “Robert Dworkin.”
• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article written by “Charles Gadda.”

Suzanne75

Activity:

• This alias left comments identical to others left by other aliases in a National Post Ampersand article by Adam McDowell entitled Dead Sea Scrolls to unroll at Royal Ontario Museum next year. This was an article promoting the DEE Exhibition coming to Toronto. The comments linked to posts by Norman Golb and alias “Charles Gadda”.

View from Here

Email: J.Friedman47@gmail.com

Activity:

• This alias was used to initiate a tech-archive.net discussion entitled New article exposes Qumran "virtual reality" film scam. However, the post links to the email address for alias "Jessica Friedman" (J.Friedman47@gmail.com). The post links to an article posted on the Oriental Institute website by Dr. Norman Golb entitled 2007 Article “The So-Called “Virtual Reality Tour” at the 2007 San Diego Scrolls Exhibit”. The OI removed Dr. Golb's article on Feb 26, 2009.
• This alias left two comments on alias Charles Gadda's NowPublic article entitled Dead Sea Scrolls coming to New York. The first comment linked to a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by lawyer Jordana Horn. The second comment linked to a Jewish Week article by Eric Herschthal which mentions Dr. Golb.
• This alias is connected to alias “Charles Gadda,” but may be another person living in Germany. This alias has left postings on articles critical of the NC DSS exhibit here, where postings by another alias, Martin Elderling, also appeared.
• This alias also posted a comment on a story about Dr. Golb’s views on Qumran on the bibbiablog.com website. The story was originally a summary of his views. Complaining about the fact that the favorable summary omitted certain aspects of Dr. Golb’s views, the alias stated:

Some of the above excerpts are truncated in such a manner as to render them unintelligible; this being said, the general picture that emerges here — and all the more so, of course, in the complete version of Golb’s article itself — is scandalous and merits the closest attention. See also the following items: http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=954321 (National Post article on upcoming Toronto exhibit) http://www.oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/dss_review_sandiego_catalogue_2007.pdf (Golb’s critique of San Diego exhibit catalogue) http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=970819 (letter by Michael Hager, director of San Diego museum, attacking Golb) http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=983256 (Golb’s response to Hager) http://robertdworkin.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-ethics-of-exhibition-romancing-the-scrolls/ (article by Robert Dworkin on exhibit controversy) It should be mentioned that the Jewish Museum in New York has now specifically acknowledged that there are “two basic theories” of scroll origins, thereby departing from all previous exhibiting institutions. For links (now amounting to an entire press dossier) and commentary on this scandal, see http://michaelhagerspeaks.wordpress.com/

The bibbiablog.com team responded saying they made the cuts for spaces sake, but remedied the situation by reproducing the entire post from the OI’s website.

• This alias posted a comment on Tammy Biondi's Raleigh-Durham About.com article entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit Opens in Raleigh. The comments links to the defunct Spinoza's Lens post by alias "Robert Dworkin". This comment is followed by comments from alias "Scrolls Student", which lists several of Dr. Norman Golb's postings on the Oriental Institute's website, and another link to alias “Charles Gadda's” NowPublic article entitled, Charity fund involved in Dead Sea Scrolls conflict.

Scrolls Student

Activity:

• This alias posted a comment on Tammy Biondi's Raleigh-Durham About.com article entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit Opens in Raleigh. This comment lists several of Dr. Norman Golb's postings on the Oriental Institute's website, and another link to alias “Charles Gadda's” NowPublic article entitled, Charity fund involved in Dead Sea Scrolls conflict. This comment is preceded and followed by comments by alias "View from Here".

Jonathan Seidel

Activity:

• This alias sent an email from seidel.jonathan@gmail.com to several people attempting to elicit a response. It appears to be an attempt to bait the recipients into responding to what they think is a sympathetic voice. The email, sent to Joe Zias, Antonio Lombatti, William Schniedewind, and several others, reads:

“Hello,

I'm wondering if perhaps you could help prepare a response to misinformation which is being spread around the internet. See http://michaelhagerspeaks.wordpress.com/, with the list of propoganda at the end, including this article in Le Monde, http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2008/11/05/les-manuscrits-de-la-mer-morte-viennent-d-etre-traduits-en-francais_1115194_3246.html which outrageously states (pardon my French): "The connection between the Essenes, who were thought to have written the scrolls, and Qumran has been reduced to nothing, just as the major American historian and paleographer N. Golb had already written."

These lies about the Chicago "historian" filth must be answered as quickly as possible, so please let me know if you're willing to help out on ANE or otherwise.

Best,

Jonathan S.

Andrew Rosenberg

Email: andrew.rsnbrg@googlemail.com

Activity:

• This alias used the email andrew.rsnbrg@googlemail.com to spam the harvested ANE-2 Yahoo Groups list.
• The user claims to be from Haifa, and sent a response to an email list mined from the ANE2 group by alias “Steve Frankel”. The email reads:

Let's keep the focus where it belongs. It does seem more than a little weird to vehemently defend a bunch of DSS charlatans, including Jodi Magness and I take it Zias as well, and at the same time to function as an ANE-2 "moderator."

Andrew Rosenberg (Haifa)

Fish-Sniffer

Activity:

• This alias was used to begin a thread on the IIDB Infidels message board entitled Bart Ehrman and the "opinio communis" - the Qumran-Essene connection . The thread was designed to draw attention to attacks made against Bart Ehrman on the WordPress blog entitled UNC professor admits he’s “not a scrolls expert,” defends museum exhibit’s bias as legitimate; Jewish Museum in New York disagrees. This alias also left a response to a post on Claude Mariottini’s blog in response to Stephen Goranson.

Emily Kaufman

Email: kaufman.emily1@gmail.com

Activity:

• This alias used email address kaufman.emily1@gmail.com to send three emails (email 1, email 2, email 3) to Chair Elizabeth Carter and other UCLA NELC faculty members, complaining about edits that were being made on the Wikipedia Dead Sea Scrolls page. The emails correspond to an edit war that took place, which resulted in alias “Rachel.Greenberg” being banished from Wikipedia as a sock puppet of Wikipedia alias "Critical Reader".

m.hollingsworth

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Christian Fundamentalism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego, which links to Dr. Golb's Oriental Institute post entitled THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AS TREATED IN A RECENTLY PUBLISHED CATALOGUE.

Blue Eyes

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Christian Fundamentalism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego.
• This alias made three comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Dead Sea Scrolls: "Qumran fortress" team responds to criticism, which mention Robert Cargill by name.
• This alias made three comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Warriors occupied Qumran? Scrolls battle continues, which call on journalist Heather Whipps to publish a correction as to why she did not provide the sources that Dr. Schniedewind used to reach his conclusion.
• This alias made comments on alias “Charles Gadda’s” NowPublic article entitled Dead Sea Scrolls at San Diego Natural History Museum — an update.

Dead Sea Scrolls Fan

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Christian Fundamentalism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego, which links to the View from Number 80 website.

Jeffery Samuels

Activity:

• This alias made a comment on alias "Charles Gadda's" NowPublic article entitled Sarah Palin's wardrobe "consultant": details emerge in McCain scandal. There, he links to a Jewish Week article, which he claims "totally confirms" alias "Charles Gadda's" position, but nowhere mentions him, and to Claude Mariottini's blog, which in turn possesses comments by aliases "Jeffery Appelbaum", "Brad H.", and "Fish-Sniffer".

Jeffery Appelbaum

Activity:

• This alias left a highly detailed response to a post on Claude Mariottini's blog in response to Stephen Goranson. The response is a highly informed, highly technical attempted rebuttal to Goranson, and makes reference to a British author named Ross Sargent on the “View from 80” website. The post is followed by posts from aliases Brad H.", and "Fish-Sniffer".

Brad H.

Activity:

• This alias left a highly detailed response to a post on Claude Mariottini's blog in response to Stephen Goranson. The post is followed by posts from aliases "Jeffery Appelbaum" and "Fish-Sniffer".

Loyola Memphis Blue

Activity:

• This alias made a comment on alias "Charles Gadda's" NowPublic article entitled Sarah Palin's wardrobe "consultant": details emerge in McCain scandal, where he refers to the traveling Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition as a "'Christianity'" oriented scroll exhibits".

Percy

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Christian Fundamentalism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego, which mentions Norman Golb and attempts to catalog early anonymous exchanges about the San Diego Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. The comments follow other comments by aliases dwayne, m.hollingsworth, and Blue Eyes.

dwayne

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article by alias "Charles Gadda" entitled Christian Fundamentalism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego, which mention the curator of the San Diego Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. The comments follow other comments by aliases Percy, m.hollingsworth, and Blue Eyes.

NYU grad student

Activity:

• This alias made a comment on a NowPublic article by alias "Peter Kaufman" entitled, Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work?. The comment points readers to a posting by alias Peter Kaufman on Peter Kaufman's blog entitled, Lawrence Schiffman’s dazzling Jewish Museum lecture.

NYU teaching fellow

Activity:

• This alias made a comment on a NowPublic article by alias "Peter Kaufman" entitled, Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work?. The comment concludes, "I'm happy to pass the email exchange and contact information on to Mr. Kaufman if he ever needs it. I can be reached at ethics.policy.statement at g mail.)"

Max E

Activity:

• This alias made comments on various “Now Public” articles of alias “Charles Gadda.”

Richard Moss

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a various news articles here and here concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibits.

Sarah Epstein

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a Topix news item entitled “A Lively Debate over the Dead Sea Scrolls”. This alias’ two comments both provide links back to Dr. Norman Golb’s Oriental Institute website postings. (One even provides a correction to the link. Alias “Sarah Epstein’s” comments appear after comments made by aliases “Charles Gadda” and “Suzanne Shapiro”.

yale-grad

Activity:

• This alias left comments on a Discovery Channel blog entitled Chicago professor weighs in on Jesus claim, where she cited Norman Golb by name and linked to his Jewish Daily Forward article entitled Take Claims About Dead Sea Scrolls With a Grain of Salt.

Harold Libowich

Activity:

• This alias made comments on a NowPublic article written by alias “Charles Gadda”.

Harold Liebovich

Activity:

• This alias left comments on a Kansas City Jewish Chronicle news story entitled Scholar disputes Dead Sea Scrolls orthodoxy featuring Dr. Norman Golb. The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle has since removed the article (cf. Fighting Back)

Tuesday Kuykendall

Activity:

• This alias posted on comments on a letter to the editor written by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled "The Other Side of the Scrolls". The comments are joined by comments from aliases “Charles Gadda”, “Tanya Fischer”, "Tuesday Kuykendall", "prying1", and "Larry Schiffman.

P_Kaufman

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on a news item entitled Exhibit tells story of scrolls Duke let go and criticized Stephen Goranson and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. The comments appear with other comments from aliases "David_Peterson", "H_Finnis", "Susan_Stern"

Susan_Stern

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on a news item entitled Exhibit tells story of scrolls Duke let go and links to the blog site by alias "larryschiffman" entitled Charges of impropriety resurface against New York University professor Lawrence Schiffman. The comments are followed by comments from aliases "David_Peterson", "H_Finnis", "P_Kaufman"

H_Finnis

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on a news item entitled Exhibit tells story of scrolls Duke let go and links to the blog site entitled Bart Ehrman and the Essenes in Raleigh by alias "biblicalraleigh". The comments are followed by comments from aliases "David_Peterson", "Susan_Stern", "P_Kaufman".

Harold Finnis

Activity:

• This alias left a comment on alias “Charles Gadda's” NowPublic article entitled Full-page New York Times ad sneers at Jews.

David Peterson

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on a news item entitled Exhibit tells story of scrolls Duke let go and links to the announcement that the NY Jewish Museum is also holding an “unbiased” exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The comments are followed by comments from aliases "H_Finnis", "Susan_Stern", "P_Kaufman"

biblicalraleigh

Activity:

• This alias created a WordPress blog site entitled Bart Ehrman and the Essenes in Raleigh to criticize the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition and Bart Ehrman. This alias has also left comments on postings.

plagiarist-schiffman

• This alias authored a Blogspot page entitled Plagiarism: the Lawrence Schiffman case accusing NYU Professor Larry Schiffman of plagiariasm. This article links to the NowPublic article by alias "Peter Kaufman entitled Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work? that details that feeble argument against Schiffman.

larryschiffman

• This alias authored a blog entitled Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls accusing Larwence Schiffman of plagiarizing Norman Golb. The article links to articles by Norman Golb. This is one of several attempts to impersonate Dr. Schiffman.

Larry Schiffman

• This alias posted on comments on a letter to the editor written by alias “Charles Gadda” entitled "The Other Side of the Scrolls". The comments are joined by comments from aliases “Charles Gadda”, “Tanya Fischer”, "Tuesday Kuykendall", "prying1", and "Larry Schiffman.
• This alias emailed NYU Professor Lawrence Schiffman's graduate students, pretending to be Dr. Schiffman, and drawing their attention to a NowPublic post by alias "Peter Kaufman" entitled Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work?.

David

• This alias left comments on a North County Times news item by Gary Warth entitled Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit lives on and provides links to two of Norman Golb’s articles entitled "The Dead Sea Scrolls As Treated In A Recently Published Catalogue" and "The So-Called 'Virtual Reality Tour' at the 2007 San Diego Scrolls Exhibit". The post was left on Nov 20, 2007 at 4:37 PM - the same day the the latter article was posted to the Oriental Institute's website.

Krauss

• This alias makes comments on a news article that are consistent with alias "Charles Gadda's" comments. The comment names several of alias "Charles Gadda's" NowPublic articles by name and provides links to them and to Norman Golb's OI DSS articles.

Morris

• This alias, who claims to be a “German-based ancient historian,” posted several lengthy comments on a blog posting after comments left by alias "Charles Gadda" defending Norman Golb, praising his accomplishments, uses the word “mendacious” and “Qumranologist,” and refers to Magen and Peleg as the “official team” of Qumran archaeologists.

it's a methodological issue

• This alias posted comments on a blog posting after comments left by alias "Charles Gadda" defending Norman Golb, and linking to several of Dr. Norman Golb’s OI articles.

no assumptions

• This alias posted comments on a blog posting after comments left by alias "Charles Gadda" defending Norman Golb.

still not convinced

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on a blog posting after comments left by alias "Charles Gadda" defending Norman Golb, linking to Norman Golb's OI articles, and drawing readers’ attention to the critique of Robert Cargill’s virtual Qumran film. This blog goes on to list several other aliases, who are continuing the argument under admittedly different names.

We Demand A Neutral Scientific Exhibit

Activity:

• This alias posted several comments on The Macintosh Biblioblog. The comments linked to an opinion piece by Norman Golb on the Jewish Forward web site entitled Take Claims About Dead Sea Scrolls With a Grain of Salt, which was archived as this article of the same title. The comments also link to an Oriental Institute article by Norman Golb entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls at Seattle's Pacific Science Center.
• This alias posted a blog entitled Chicago scholar attacks Seattle scrolls exhibit on the blog entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls in Seattle and San Diego. The comments were joined by comments from alias "Curators_Should_Do_Their_Homework", which detail several of the arguments of Norman Golb.

biblicalnewyork

Activity:

• This alias posts a comment on a blog entitled Dead Sea Scrolls in New York.

Curators_Should_Do_Their_Homework

Activity:

• This alias posted comments on a post entitled Chicago scholar attacks Seattle scrolls exhibit on the blog entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls in Seattle and San Diego. The comments detail several of the arguments of Norman Golb. The comments were joined by comments from alias "We Demand A Neutral Scientific Exhibit"

Ignorant Gnostic

Activity:

• This alias was used on the IIDB Infidels database here in support of alias “Charles Gadda” and exhibited similar writing style, vocabulary, and grammatical techniques, including the peculiar ‘double dash.’

Timothy Fishbane

Activity:

• This alias has left comments on articles critical of the NC DSS exhibit here. This alias is also responsible for the WordPress blogs criticizing the DSS exhibits here.

Jerome Cooper

Activity:

• This alias was used in an email exchange with Bart Ehrman. The contents of the exchange were published in this blog

S. Edelstein

Activity:

• This alias left comments on an Indyweek.com article entitled Unraveling the continuing mystique of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Torn and frayed (which cites alias "Robert Dworkin") pointing to a NowPublic article by alias "Peter Kaufman" entitled Plagiarism and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Did NYU department chairman pilfer from Chicago historian’s work? attacking Dr. Larry Schiffman. Comments were also left by alias “Timothy Fishbane.”

Simon Adler

Activity:

• This alias left comments on a CBCNews.ca article entitled ROM bringing Dead Sea scrolls to Toronto, which draws attention to Dr. Golb’s and Dr. Hager’s exchange in a National Post article (which has since been removed. Cf. Fighting Back above). This alias also left a post on Menachem Mendel’s web site entitled Norman Golb on the DSS, which specifically targets Dr. Cargill as anti-Semitic. The post references the Wikipedia posts by alias “Rachel.Greenberg” and emailed about by alias “Emily Kaufman.

David Hall

Activity:

• This alias left a post on Dr. Claude Mariottini’s blog entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World. This alias links to posts by Norman Golb entitled the Current New York Exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls: An Appraisal and an anonymous WordPress blog entitled Michael Hager Speaks

Philip Schaff

Activity:

• This alias left comments on a post on Dr. Claude Mariottini’s blog entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World. The response links to an Internet Infidels message board string entitled Defenders of Qumran-Essene theory attack Jewish Museum exhibit reviews MERGED where alias "Charles Gadda" criticizes Robert Cargill, Stephen Goranson, and several others. Dr. Mariottini laments the fact that alias "Philip Schaff" leaves notes such as these on the message boards

Robert Friedman

Activity:

• This alias left a response on a June 12, 2007 post on Claude Mariottini’s blog entitled Norman Golb on the Dead Sea Scrolls. This response praised Norman Golb's Kansas City lecture and criticized the SDNHM’s lecture series for not inviting Dr. Golb. The word “Qumranologist” is used

uclaquotes

Activity:

• This alias posted a blog entitled Graduate of Pepperdine and UCLA exposes Dead Sea Scrolls blogger scandal on a blog site entitled Selected quotes from Wikipedia writings of Robert Cargill, Ph.D. that attempts to catalog some of Robert Cargill's efforts on wikipedia (apparently unaware that this page exists).

Emails (with Headers)

Email from alias Charles (Carlo) Gadda to UCLA Media Relations

START HEADER

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id <B4678196a0001>; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:59:06 -0700
      

 s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
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END OF HEADER

From: Carlo Gadda [mailto:carlogadda@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:59 AM
To: Meg Sullivan
Subject: Your article on the "Virtual Qumran" film
Importance: High

Dear Ms. Sullivan,

I have read your article on the "Virtual Qumran" film, and I regret to inform you that it gives a seriously misleading impression to anyone who might not be familiar with the current state of scholarship on Qumran.

(1) To begin with, Norman Golb did not publish an "article" in 1996; he published a 400-page book entitled "Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?"

(2) Your sources (no doubt Cargill and Schniedewind themselves) failed to inform you that the thesis they are defending has been rejected not only Golb, but by an entire series of major archaeologists since 1990. These include most notably the Donceel team (officially appointed by the Ecole Biblique to review and finish de Vaux's work); Yizhar Hirschfeld (see his book Qumran in Context); and the officially appointed Israel Antiquities Authority team led by Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg, who, after ten seasons of digs at Qumran, have published their conclusions that the site was never inhabited by any sect and that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the remnants of libraries from the Jerusalem region.

These facts are well known to Qumran scholars, and your article gives a distinctly misleading impression to the reader by not mentioning them. Dr. Schniedewind is known to be a radical defender of the disputed Qumran-Essene theory, and he has a right to defend his views, but it was highly inappropriate of him to use $100,000 in grants to mislead the public in this film by failing to mention the conclusions of the Magen and Peleg team, and it was inappropriate for you to advertise the film without informing people of the actual facts.

(3) Your article also fails to mention that the film has already been subjected to biting criticism by Norman Golb (see his article "Fact and Fiction in Current Exhibitions of the Dead Sea Scrolls--A Critical Notebook for Viewers," available on the University of Chicago website at http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/scr/). In the wake of Golb's criticism, one commentator has suggested that "the goal of this film is simply to indoctrinate visitors, before they see the rest of the [San Diego Scrolls] exhibit, into believing in the old, Qumran-Essene theory, despite the fact that it has now been rejected by virtually all of the major archaeologists in the field."

I have left aside the clear manipulation of evidence in the film itself, e.g., the way it argues that Qumran was inhabited by a group of male Essenes, despite the fact that the remains of women were found in the cemetery--since Pliny states that the Essenes of the Dead Sea were celibate, the makers of the film were obliged to distort, ignore or explain away the actual evidence to support their view. And so on and so forth with the other claims they make.

In the hope these observations will have given you fruit for thought, I am

Yours sincerely,

Charles Gadda

• Note: The closing paragraph of this email from alias "Charles Gadda" ends with an unpunctuated words I am followed by a closing and a signature line. Note the resemblance to letters signed by Norman Golb to the UCLA Provost and by alias "Robert Dworkin" to a SDNHM board member.
• Note: The use of double dashes [--] as a dash. This is similar to the signed letter written by Norman Golb to the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Email 1 from alias Steve Frankel to a Harvested ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroup

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29 Apr 2008 04:03:07 +0000
      

28 Apr 2008 21:03:06 -0700 (PDT)
      

EHEINR007@aol.com, ehud.benzvi@ualberta.ca, eliotbraun@yahoo.com,
finckean@yahoo.com, frankha@post.tau.ac.il, fscalf@gmail.com,
garygreenberg@nyc.rr.com, gdelmonte@lunet.it, gdoudna@msn.com,
george.athas@moore.edu.au, gfsomsel@yahoo.com, gkiraz@gorgiaspress.com,
gklingbeil@aiias.edu, gmills4248@msn.com, grammatim@verizon.net,
groups@yare.org, gtosiris@mpx.com.au, gwoodgeno@yahoo.com
      

h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-ID;
b=LzW0na+Z5abKvt1FEciUuWWw4ERc9Myhx2a51xwSFrNTRZY7LWBtDZFEPXV8bbTuUlZB6jpbG7m/JsC2zk6ke4lZUhQJe6z6qQrrubgH+Km0CajtztwjNF4R8rXQpNNjEpQFzZdFdRB72RDN/qOvtCrlSHP/8ulXxRJkAxhtyLo=;
      

d="scan'208,217";a="256307539"
      

UOT3IqMVM1lfudE2bKZl3XAXvUFHKQabP6CLNT_AKgXUwUp1Nasgtzpe2K_Dvwy52ntex_MaPpGKjWV8c2RpbSoHahRolyVAoQ--
      

END OF HEADER

Today, Jeffrey Gibson (owner and moderator of ANE-2) sought to reassure list members that a number of important security measures have been taken to prevent the charlatanry of certain contributors from being exposed. (See Gibson's statement below.)

According to these measures, everyone will be held to a rigid, impenetrable standard of personal identification based on "social location and/or academic affiliation." No infiltrators will be allowed to publish comments with "false" names, "handles," or forbidden "locators." These, it is announced, are the protocols of the list, with which all list members agree to abide.

As I read the statement, I could not help but wonder whether this sudden urge to "clamp down" could have something to do with the nauseating quarrel between Dr. Gibson and another internet blogger that has been going on for the past couple of weeks, during the course of which Gibson has repeatedly accused University of Chicago historian Norman Golb of "illegal actions."

See the full exchange here: http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=239497 and see also http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=241630 where the epic struggle between Gibson and his interlocutor reaches climaxes of anger almost unheard of since the fall of the Dead Sea Scrolls monopoly.

How ironical, that a list which began as a service set up by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, has been taken over by an adjunct teacher in the Chicago city college system who spends much of his time leveling angry accusations of "illegal conduct" against one of the Oriental Institute's most respected members. Was it right that Gibson should hitch a ride on the ANE brand, and then convert the list into a mouthpiece for the likes of Joe Zias and Robert Feather?

Steve Frankel (socially located and affiliated with a variety of major archaeological organizations, including the American Society for Biblical Exposure)

Email 2 from alias Steve Frankel to a Harvested ANE2 Yahoo Newsgroup

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29 Apr 2008 23:15:40 +0000
      

29 Apr 2008 16:15:39 -0700 (PDT)
      

END OF HEADER

Original Message Subject: Re: ANE-2: Jeffrey Gibson's mission
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:15:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: steve Frankel <frankel.steve@yahoo.com>
To: Peter T. Daniels <grammatim@verizon.net>, e2waxi@gmail.com, editor@ancientneareast.net, ehcline@gwu.edu, EHEINR007@aol.com, ehud.benzvi@ualberta.ca, eliotbraun@yahoo.com,finckean@yahoo.com, frankha@post.tau.ac.il, fscalf@gmail.com, garygreenberg@nyc.rr.com, gdelmonte@lunet.it, gdoudna@msn.com, george.athas@moore.edu.au, gfsomsel@yahoo.com,gkiraz@gorgiaspress.com, gklingbeil@aiias.edu, gmills4248@msn.com, groups@yare.org, gtosiris@mpx.com.au, gwoodgeno@yahoo.com, DAVID.STACEY63@NTLWORLD.COM, davidlorton@earthlink.net,despinne@gmail.com, dgrolin@yahoo.com, dhirsch@library.ucla.edu, dhyphenf@yahoo.com, dieleman@humnet.ucla.edu, diwonusoio@yahoo.co.uk, donaldrvance@mac.com, dopderbeck@gmail.com,dqhall59@yahoo.com, driver40386@yahoo.ca, dwashbur@nyx.net, mail@robert-deutsch.com, ane.als@gmail.com, anebo10@gmail.com, antonio.lombatti@mac.com, apazeraite@yahoo.fr,appelbau@h2.hum.huji.ac.il, B.Andelkovic@f.bg.ac.yu, beahopkinson@earthlink.net, beneflei-ane@yahoo.com, bjarkal@online.no, briancolless@inspire.net.nz, chris_conlan@yahoo.co.uk, chris@parthia.com,christopher.heard@pepperdine.edu, cjsulz@hotmail.com, clancyfrank@hotmail.com, cwhelton@mindspring.com, darlington.mary@yahoo.com, sam@israntique.org.il, sbudin@camden.rutgers.edu,schorch_AT@gmx.de, seekx22@yahoo.com, shemichaels@earthlink.net, silverman_mark@yahoo.com, summers@metu.edu.tr, sveta_sg@yahoo.com, tadorne@tadorne-art.com, timothy.mink@yahoo.ca,tlt@teol.ku.dk, tom.elliott@nyu.edu, torythrp@yahoo.com, van_der_Veen@gmx.de, vartavan@yahoo.com, victor@bgumail.bgu.ac.il, whiting@cc.helsinki.fi, wjwalshphd@comcast.net, xalkinos02@freemail.gr,yigal9@netvision.net.il, yitzhaksapir@gmail.com, yranells@gmail.com, z3itgeistco@yahoo.com, jgibson000@comcast.net, Trudy Kawami <tkawami@arthurmsacklerfdn.org>, Niels Peter Lemche<npl@teol.ku.dk>

Oh wow, U. of C. alumnus "Frankel" has been exposed as Golb's son (how could anyone with a modicum of respect for such a schmuck be anything else!), by U. of C. alumnus Peter Daniels, the great linguistic genius.

While we're honoring the air-tight security of ANE-2 -- Heil Gibson! -- let's send the schmuck professor to prison for stealing books you needed for your precious investigations.

Shave your pompous beard and send it to ANE moderator Gibson -- but don't bother reading his nauseating debate with "Charles Gadda" on IIDB, http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=239497 http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=241630

because you already know all the answers.

Email from alias Don Matthews to Eric Cline

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22 Dec 2007 14:39:23 -0800 (PST)
      

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a="605826613:sNHT22147376"
      

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Dear Dr. Cline,

You are mentioned in this article, I'm wondering if there is any truth to the allegations?

http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/charity-fund-involved-dead-sea-scrolls-conflict

D. Matthews

Email 1 from alias Emily Kaufman to Elizabeth Carter

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 7:55 PM, Emily Kaufman <kaufman.emily1@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Professor Carter,

A student in your department, who prepared a film being shown in Dead Sea Scrolls exhibits, is now involved in deleting information about the controversy surrounding those exhibits from wikipedia articles. He uses the pen-name "XKV8R" to this end -- see his user-page at http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:IsraelXKV8R, and compare his edits and statements at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dead_Sea_scrolls&action=history <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dead_Sea_scrolls&action=history>

This activity is inappropriate for a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA. It is also inappropriate for the student in question, because he has a conflict of interest, having been personally involved in preparation of material used in the exhibits.

I hope you will take measures to stop "XKV8R" from inappropriately interfering in the contributions I and other authors have been making to the wikipedia article on the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is annoying to us to see our work suddenly disappear under one pretext or another, simply because "XKV8R" is trying to suppress any discussion of a controversy surrounding exhibits in whose preparation he has played a role.

Yours sincerely,

Emily Kaufman

Email 2 from alias Emily Kaufman to Elizabeth Carter

From: "kaufman.emily1" <kaufman.emily1@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:07:34 -0500
To: <carter@humnet.ucla.edu>
Subject: text of item your graduate student keeps deleting from wikipedia

Dear Dr. Carter,

So that you can see exactly what is going on, here is the text in question:

Controversy involving recent and upcoming Dead Sea Scroll exhibits

The Royal Ontario Museum <http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Ontario_Museum> of Toronto will host an exhibition on the scrolls from June 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010[7] <http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls#cite_note-6> . A National Post article entitled "Controversy surrounds exhibit of Dead Sea Scrolls" states: "The Royal Ontario Museum could find itself unearthing old controversies when it opens its $3-million, would-be blockbuster Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition next June." The article explains that a "history professor in the U.S. has accused an earlier, related project in San Diego of deliberate bias, scholarly incompetence and [has] suggest[ed] that its curator, who is also assembling the ROM exhibition, was unqualified for the job." The article indicates that the professor in question, University of Chicago historian Norman Golb, "attacked the San Diego show by circulating a 24-page critique of the exhibition catalogue highlighting what he called 'a great many factual errors and unprovable assertions presented as truths.'"[8] <http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls#cite_note-7> In a letter published in the National Post, Michael Hager, director of the San Diego Natural History Museum, defends the quality of that museum's exhibit, stating that the "ideas presented in the San Diego Dead Sea scrolls exhibition were thoroughly researched by a team of accredited biblical scholars, with several alternative theories for their origin presented."[9] <http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls#cite_note-8> In another letter also published in the same newspaper, Golb states that the "controversy now unfolding about the scrolls arises out of the fact that the debate between the two salient theories of Scroll origins -- the Qumran-Essene theory and the theory of Jerusalem origin -- is featured in a current exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York. By contrast, most museums in past exhibits have largely concealed this debate from the public. The Royal Ontario Museum, which has a reputation for scientific integrity, now is faced with the problem of presenting a balanced and accurate exhibition."[10] <http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls#cite_note-9> The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers reported on the featuring of the scholarly debate over the Scrolls' origins in the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit held at the Jewish Museum in New York in the Autumn of 2008.[11] <http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls#cite_note-10>

Why does a student in your department, who was personally involved in the exhibit at the center of this controversy, keep deleting this information? Is this normal conduct for a UCLA doctoral candidate?

Email 3 from alias Emily Kaufman to Elizabeth Carter

From: "kaufman.emily1" <kaufman.emily1@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:39:27 -0500
To: <carter@humnet.ucla.edu>
Subject: Re: Conduct of your graduate student on wikipedia

P.p.s. He continues to block the insertion of a section reporting on a controversy in which he himself is involved.

And one of you apparently forwarded these messages to him, because he's talking about them too with his usual arrogance.

Are you familiar with the concept of tyranny? Didn't any of you ever hear of standing aside when you are personally involved in a controversy? Don't you consider this your responsibility, that a student in your department is engaged in such conduct? Don't you feel you should sit down with him and have a gentle word or two about the matter?

And he will succeed, of course, in blocking the information with his false and abusive claims. Does that make you feel good? Is that what UCLA is all about? Petty loyalties at the expense of basic principles of academic responsibility?

Email from alias Charles Gadda to Jim West

Original Message
Subject: new scrolls article, showing fundamentalist links
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:08:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Carlo Gadda <carlogadda@yahoo.com>
To: jwest@highland.net

Jim, I have left you out of it because I don't think it would be fair, despite the obvious similarities, baptism, the publication of Cargill's defense precisely on your site, etc.

Incidentally, on your bio page, I would recommend that you say where you received your degrees, otherwise it does not sound serious (cf. what I had to say about Zias and Fields in the article, although their cases are much worse).

http://www.nowpublic.com/christian_fundamentalism_and_dead_sea_scrolls_san_diego

Letter from alias Robert Dworkin to SDNHM Board Member

The following letter was sent from alias "Robert Dworkin" to a member of the board of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

The return address was:
362 32nd St. Union City, NJ 07087

The letter was not signed, but listed the sender as:
Robert Dworkin
robertdworkin@gmail.com

CLICK HERE FOR A .PDF OF ALIAS "ROBERT DWORKIN'S LETTER TO A SDNHM BOARD MEMBER

• Note: The closing paragraph of this email from alias "Robert Dworkin" ends with an unpunctuated words I am followed by a closing and a signature line. Note the resemblance to letters from alias "Charles Gadda" to the UCLA Media Relations Dept., and to the signed by Norman Golb to the UCLA Provost.
• Note: The use of double dashes [--] as a dash. This is similar to the signed letter written by Norman Golb to the San Diego Natural History Museum, and the letter from alias "Charles Gadda" to the UCLA Media Relations Dept.
• Note: The name of the SDNHM board member has been XXXXXed out for privacy.

Email from alias Steve Frankel to Elizabeth Carter

From: Steve Frankel [ mailto:steve.frankel2@gmail.com ]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 3:56 PM
To: Bakhos, Carol; Banani, Amin (Bol Fwd); Band, Arnold; Bodrogligeti, Andras; Boustan, Ra'anan; Buccellati, Giorgio (FWD); Burke, Aaron; Cooperson, Michael; Cowe, Peter; Davidson, Herbert A.; Dieleman, Jacco; Englund, Dr. Robert; Ezer, Nancy; Fishbein, Michael; fitz@ucla.edu; Hagigi, Latifeh (FWD); Hakak, Lev; Hirsch, David G.; Jaeckel, Ralph; Keshishian, Anahid;Poonawala, Ismail; Sabar, Yona; Schmidt, Hanns Peter; Shayegan, Rahim; Slyomovics, Susan; Wendrich, Willeke; Pirnazar, Nahid; Ziai, Hossein
Subject: The recent conduct of Bill Schniedewind and his student Robert Cargill

Gentlemen,

A short while ago, I mailed the following to the chairman of your department from a friend's email address, with a blind copy to all of you. Please address any correspondence to me at the above email. Now we will see if Dr. Carter takes any action on this matter or hushes it up.

Best,

S. Frankel

Dear Professor Carter,

As an alumnus of UCLA, I write to you concerning an important, but delicate matter.

It has come to my attention that Robert Cargill, a graduate student of Dr. William Schniedewind in your department, recently produced a "virtual reality" film on Khirbet Qumran, which was shown to some 450,000 visitors attending the San Diego Natural History Museum's controversial exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

According to published accounts, this film (funded with $100,000 from Stephen Spielberg's Holocaust fund) presents Dr. Schniedewind's views on Qumran, and in doing so distorts the current state of research in this field of studies, making many demonstrably false claims, treating disputed interpretations as facts and defending an old, and widely disputed, theory of Dead Sea Scroll origins without informing the public of the reasons why an entire series of major researchers, including the officially appointed Israel Antiquities Authority team led by Drs. Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg, have now rejected that theory. This becomes abundantly clear in a review of the film by Universityof Chicago historian Norman Golb, published on the Oriental Institute website (see http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/san_diego_virtual_reality_2007.pdf).

My concern is as follows. I have scoured the internet in vain for any response by Dr. Schniedewind or Mr. Cargill to this detailed critique of their film. But I have read that the preparation of the film has been a key focal point of Mr. Cargill's work towards his Ph.D. The accumulation of transparently erroneous and mendacious statements made throughout the film, documented in Dr. Golb's article and clearly designed to mislead the public, can hardly be called an example of ethical conduct on the part of a doctoral candidate. If it were merely a question of Dr. Schniedewind failing to answer criticisms of his views, one could write it off as another example of a typical academic dispute, but in this case we are dealing with a graduate student, and with basic standards of scholarship that obviously must be met; questions that those who adhere to such standards would rightly expect to be raised at a dissertation defense; etc.

For example, in marginal correspondence that is apparently part of his unpublished film script, Mr. Cargill refers to a "reason" justifying one of his statements that he is careful "never to write down" (see Dr. Golb's article for details). One cannot but wonder whether those attending Mr. Cargill's dissertation defense will carefully question him as to precisely what this reason is that, in violation of all canons of scholarship, he never writes down.

Ultimately, I feel that I have no choice but to ask: What is UCLA going to do to ensure that Mr. Cargill provides a candid explanation of his behavior with respect to this film? Will steps will be taken to ensure that he responds to Dr. Golb's criticisms, corrects his false statements and issues a public apology for having misled 450,000 people? Will Mr. Cargill be allowed to receive a Ph.D. for work of this quality, in the face of an unanswered refutation published for all to see by an influential historian teaching at theUniversity of Chicago?

I conclude that we appear to be dealing with a serious issue here that should be dealt with forcefully and responsibly, to avoid the risk of its being raised by various parties at Mr. Cargill's dissertation defense, as well as the even more upsetting likelihood of hearing that it has been raised with the university administration and local newspapers.

With best regards,

Steve Frankel

Email from alias Joshua Reznik to Elizabeth Carter

From: Joshua Reznick
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:03:11 -0700 (PDT)
To: carter@humnet.ucla.edu
Subject: UCLA research team involved in new scandal?

To: Professor Elizabeth Carter, Chair, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages, UCLA

Dear Professor Carter,

I learned today, from a pair of postings on the ANE-2 site, as well as from an article posted on the IIDB site, that the members of a research team working out of your department have been using ideas and techniques initially developed by Ferdinand Rohrhirsch (Katholische Universität Eichstaett) without giving him credit, claiming instead that they have made "the world's first" computer-generated film on Khirbet Qumran. See the postings at http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=239497, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/7746 and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/7749.

This impression seems to be confirmed by UCLA's "Virtual Qumran" website (see http://www.nelc.ucla.edu/qumran/about.html ) where Dr. Rohrhirsch's 2000/2001 film is not mentioned, and where William Schniedewind is clearly credited with having come up with the Virtual Qumran "idea."

As indicated on ANE-2, Dr. Schniedewind's student Robert Cargill received $100,000 from the Righteous Persons foundation in 2006 to cover the production costs of the UCLA film. Given the way this film has been presented to the public, are we to assume that Mr. Spielberg, when he consented to the grant, was under the impression that the UCLA project would be the "world's first" of its type?

What is more, a similar film dated 2002 (four years before the Spielberg grant) is also available on the University of the Holy Land (UHL) site. This film, too, is not mentioned on the UCLA site, but it is not clear if it is the work product of someone at UHL or of some collaboration between UHL and Dr. Schniedewind, since the latter is known to have been affiliated with UHL (an affiliation which itself, I might add, appears to violate UCLA regulations).

Allow me to express my hope that your department will come forward with a candid statement on the appropriateness of the Schniedewind/Cargill presentation ("world's first", no mention of either of the previous films), providing, if necessary, details on the substance and dates of any correspondence that Dr. Schniedewind may have had with Dr. Rohrhirsch and/or anyone at the University of the Holy Land concerning these films, so that the public can form a proper understanding of the sequence of events and claims being made.

With best wishes,

Email from alias Steve Frankel to UCLA NELC Department

From: Steve Frankel [ mailto:steve.frankel2@gmail.com ]
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:13 PM
To: Bakhos, Carol; Banani, Amin (Bol Fwd); Band, Arnold; Bodrogligeti, Andras; Boustan, Ra'anan; Buccellati, Giorgio (FWD); Burke, Aaron; Cooperson, Michael; Cowe, Peter; Davidson, Herbert A. (FWD); Dieleman, Jacco; Englund, Dr. Robert; Ezer, Nancy; Fishbein, Michael; fitz@ucla.edu; Hagigi, Latifeh (FWD); Hakak, Lev; Hirsch, David G.; Jaeckel, Ralph; Keshishian, Anahid; Poonawala, Ismail; Sabar, Yona; Schmidt, Hanns Peter; Shayegan, Rahim; Slyomovics, Susan; Wendrich, Willeke; Pirnazar, Nahid; Ziai, Hossein
Subject: Re: The recent conduct of Bill Schniedewind and his student Robert Cargill

Dear members of the Department of Near Eastern Languages,

As a follow-up to my recent letter, I must now write to point out that a member of your department, Dr. William Schniedewind, apparently served on the board of advisors (and as adjunct professor) at the University of the Holy Land (UHL) until just a few months ago. See this web page and scroll down: http://cached-holy-land.blogspot.com/2007/10/did-william-schniedewind-serve-on-board.html

Furthermore, while it seems that Dr. Schniedewind's name has now disappeared from UHL's website, the "Virtual Reality" film being promoted on your departmental website, co-authored by Dr. Schniedewind and his student Robert Cargill, is still being promoted on the UHL site as well, see http://www.uhl.ac/Qumran3D/Qumran3D.html

All of this obliges me to ask: is it appropriate for a UCLA faculty member to have such an affiliation with an Evangelical Christian educational institution? After all, UCLA is a secular, state-run institution, and UHL is an academic organization (and not simply a church); doesn't this pose a problem with respect to the United States Constitution and UCLA's own policies? Has Dr. Schniedewind's affiliation with the University of the Holy Land been the subject of an investigation in your department?

With best wishes,

Steve Frankel

Email from alias Lawrence Schiffman to Lawrence Schiffman's Graduate Students

From: larry schiffman <larry.schiffman@gmail.com <mailto:larry.schiffman@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 4, 2008 10:08 PM
Subject: plagiarism charges
To: xxxxxx@nyu.edu, xxxxxx@nyu.edu, xxxxxx@nyu.edu, xxxxxx@nyu.edu

XXX, XXX, XXX, XXX,

Apparently, someone is intent on exposing a minor failing of mine that dates back almost fifteen years ago. 

You are not to mention the name of the scholar in question to any of our students, and every effort must be made to prevent this article from coming to their attention.  This is my career at stake.  I hope you will all understand.

http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/plagiarism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-did-nyu-professor-snitch-chicago-historians-work <http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/plagiarism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-did-nyu-professor-snitch-chicago-historians-work>

Lawrence Schiffman

• Note: Students' names and emails XXXed out for privacy.

Email from alias Steven Fishbane to Larry Schiffman

From: Steven Fishbane <steven.fishbane@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:15:27 -0400
To: <lawrence.schiffman@nyu.edu>
Subject: Nowpublic allegations concerning your work

Dear Dr. Schiffman,

I have read the "plagiarism and misrepresentation" allegations concerning you on the Nowpublic site, at http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/plagiarism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-did-nyu-department-chairman-pilfer-chicago-historian-s-work.

If, as I suspect, the author of this outrageous piece is Jeffrey Gibson of Chicago, then you are dealing with an agent provocateur driven by his own academic failure, whose basic motivation is hatred of Golb, and whose aim is simply to stir further resentment among scholars.

As someone who has had a certain amount of experience with such matters in the past, may I offer a word of advice? You may wish to register with the Nowpublic site (it's free, takes just a few minutes and you can use any alias you like) and contact the author by private email, proposing to issue a statement of some sort if he is willing to take down the article and discontinue his efforts.

This type of suggestion often does the trick, because those who produce such pieces are usually frustrated individuals looking for some type of personal recognition.

You may wish to propose saying, for example, that these are times of great developments in scrolls research; that the time has come for scholars to put their quarrels behind them; that you yourself, in the heat of great polemics, said certain things that you regret; that we must recognize the contribution of all scholars, etc.

I know this may be an unpalatable suggestion, but I recommend it nonetheless because I have seen these things start with a few hundred readers and boomerang all over the internet until they are picked up by mainstream news sources. If you are indeed dealing with Gibson, this is even more likely, given the man's skill at using aliases, the contacts he seems to have around the country, and his in-depth knowledge of the internet.

With best wishes,

Steven Fishbane

Email from alias David Kaplan to Tim Stowell

From: David Kaplan [ mailto:david88kaplan@gmail.com ]
Sent: Tue 3/3/2009 5:20 PM
To: stowell@humnet.ucla.edu; Stowell, Tim
Subject: material posted by UCLA adjunct professor

Dear Dean Stowell,

As an alumnus of Berkely who has a great deal of respect for UCLA, I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to a polemic<http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:IsraelXKV8R/Sandbox>directed against a Jewish scholar, posted on the internet by one Robert Cargill, who presents himself as an adjunct professor and recent recipient of a Ph.D. from the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages.

Dr. Cargill's curriculim vitae, posted on his website<http://www.bobcargill.com/>, states that he is a Christian minister and former senior manager at Christianity.com, and that he currently teaches not only at UCLA, but also at a Christian college called Azuza Pacific<http://www.apu.edu/about/faith/>. The curriculum explains that Dr. Cargill received his doctoral degree not for research of a philological, linguistic or historical nature (as one might perhaps expect in a department of Near Eastern Languages), but for a computer-generated modeling project presenting a reconstruction of the archaeological site of Qumran.

Now if you look at the polemic posted by Dr. Cargill, you will see that it presents itself as a serious investigation into a variety of internet postings, all of which -- or so Dr. Cargill claims, without any clear substantiating proof that I can make out, apart from the mere fact that he has assembled them -- are the writings of one individual. But when one begins to give this material a closer read, it quickly becomes apparent that Dr. Cargill's true aim is to attack, by association and innuendo, a well-known Jewish scholar.

Thus, Dr. Cargill's central claimi is that "the alias 'Charles Gadda' is one of over 60 anonymous internet aliases dedicated to the advocacy and defense of the academic theories of Dr. Norman Golb, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor of Jewish History and Civilization at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute." Then he concludes that "all of the material you see here is the product of one individual. This puppet master is highly knowledgeable of the theories, life, history, and publications ... of Dr. Norman Golb of the University of Chicago's distinguished Oriental Institute. This individual has created over 60 aliases that have all been employed in the defense and promotion of the views of Dr. Norman Golb. Additionally, this individual has spared no effort in attempting to defame, discredit, and attack any and all scholars that disagree with Dr. Golb."

The problem with these assertions, is that they are nearly all quite visibly unsubstantiated and untrue. For example, follow Dr. Cargill's links to the page of articles <http://www.nowpublic.com/user/111280/assignments> posted by "Charles Gadda." This author is apparently concerned with various manifestations of anti-semitism in our intellectual culture. There is, for example, an article entitled Antisemitism and the Dead Sea Scrolls<http://www.nowpublic.com/health/antisemitism-and-dead-sea-scrolls>, which briefly cites an editorial by Dr. Golb among other sources, but can hardly be described as "dedicated to the advocacy and defense of the academic theories of Dr. Norman Golb."

Another article by the same author is entitled Full-page New York Times Ad Sneers at Jews<http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/full-page-new-york-times-ad-sneers-jews>, and does not appear to cite Dr. Golb at all. Idem for the Peddling of Religious Sensationalism in America<http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/jesus-judas-and-dead-sea-scrolls-peddling-religious-sensationalism-america>. One article is critical of Sarah Palin. Still others appear to be critical of a series of exhibitions dealing with the Dead Sea Scrolls; the point the author is apparently seeking to make is that, in his view, the exhibitions have failed to accurately present "current research" -- not merely of Dr. Golb, but of all kinds of Israeli scholars as well, who the author enumerates and to whose writings he provides links and references.

What is not clear, is how any of this amounts to a "dedication to the defense and promotion" of Dr. Golb's views, or how it demonstrates a knowledge of Dr. Golb's "life" and "history." Unfortunately, Dr. Cargill's distorted presentation of the information he has gathered makes it quite clear that his goal here is not to establish the truth, but specifically to smear the reputation of one of our nation's principal Jewish scholars, by somehow associating him, through unproven innuendos and suggestions, with controversial internet postings.

I for one find it peculiar and discomfiting to read material in such poor taste, coming from a person who presents himself as a Christian scholar associated with both UCLA and Azuza Pacific. Furthermore, since the attack is of a gratuitous, obsessive and indeed somewhat irrational nature, one must wonder whether the zealous young man who posted it has not risked damaging his career in doing so. What were his motivations? In this regard, it must be hoped that Dr. Cargill, the former senior manager at Christianity.com, did not post this information for a member of the Near Eastern Languages department at UCLA, and that his departmental advisers will counsel him on whether he should associate himself, and by consequence UCLA, with this type of hateful personal polemic.

Finally, I also feel obliged to point out to you that Azuza Pacific has issued a "faith statement," which you can read at the link I provided above. Here is a brief excerpt: "We believe in the ... total moral depravity of humanity, resulting in our exceeding sinfulness and lost estate, and necessitating our regeneration by the Holy Spirit." The statement says that Azuza "expects faculty and staff not only to believe in such tenets, but to practice them in daily living." I assume that UCLA takes steps to ensure that Christian ministers such as Dr. Cargill do not "practice" such tenets in their adjunct classes at UCLA, but you may wish to consider this as well.

Yours sincerely,

David Kaplan

Email from alias Jonathan Seidel to Risa Levitt Kohn

From: Jonathan Seidel
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:56:55 -0500
To: Risa Levitt
Subject: Dead Sea Scroll exhibits

Dear Dr. Kohn,    

I believe you may find this item of interest: http://michaelhagerspeaks.wordpress.com/    

and, in particular, the article from Le Monde linked at the bottom of the page, which concludes with the sentence: "The ties between the Essenes … and Qumran have now been reduced to nothing, just as the major American historian and paleographer Norman Golb had already written."    

I would be curious to know your opinion: did the Jewish Museum in New York get it wrong about the "two basic theories"? Are all these news items about the "two principal theories" simply wrong?    

I would also be interested in knowing if you are planning to answer Golb's critique of your catalogue, which I read last night.  See his review of the Jewish Museum exhibit too.  It's all linked there on that page.  Hoping to hear from you,    

With best wishes,  

Jonathan Seidel

Posted Items by Norman Golb

Dr. Norman Golb was written many items with regard to the traveling Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. He regularly posts these items on the Oriental Institute's website. Links to the website and the relevant items are listed below.

The Oriental Institute's THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND OTHER HEBREW MSS PROJECT

Letters from Norman Golb

In addition to the items posted on the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute website, Dr. Golb has also sent many signed letters in connection to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. A select number of the obtained letters are listed below (and some are not). The contents of the letters are transcribed here on this page, and the link above the letter links to an image of the original letter.

Norman Golb's Letter to the San Diego Natural History Museum

CLICK HERE FOR A .PDF OF NORMAN GOLB'S SIGNED LETTER TO THE SDNHM

• Note the use of the word "mendacious".
• Note also and the use of double dashes [--] as a dash. This is similar to the email sent by alias "Charles Gadda" to the UCLA Media Relations Dept.

Norman Golb's Letter to the UCLA Provost

CLICK HERE FOR A .PDF OF NORMAN GOLB'S SIGNED LETTER TO THE UCLA PROVOST

• Note: The closing paragraph of this email from Norman Golb ends with an unpunctuated words I am followed by a closing and a signature line. Note the resemblance to letters signed by alias "Charles Gadda" to the UCLA Media Relations Department and by alias Robert Dworkin to a SDNHM board member.

Letter to the Editor of the National Review

More Dead Sea Scrolls controversy
National Post
Published: Saturday, November 22, 2008

Re: Controversy Dogs Dead Sea Scrolls, letter to the editor, Nov. 19.

Michael W. Hager, the president and CEO of the San Diego Natural History Museum, claims that "untraceable e-mails" sent to the museum's board made "unfounded claims [about the Dead Sea Scrolls] ... citing Norman Golb as an expert" and that I "ignited [a] "controversy" at that museum which "was quickly seen for what it was."

I am unaware of any facts supporting these unusual assertions. My own work on the Scrolls has to do with their philological and historical analysis based on the present accumulation of tangible evidence.

My only contributions to the debate over the San Diego exhibit were my analysis, found on the University of Chicago Web site, and an appendix. Regrettably, the museum chose to remain silent in the face of the various criticisms raised in those documents, which I offered as a gesture of public service and concern over the scientific legitimacy of the exhibit.

The genuine controversy now unfolding about the scrolls arises out of the fact that the debate between the two salient theories of Scroll origins -- the Qumran-Essene theory and the theory of Jerusalem origin -- is featured in a current exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York.

By contrast, most museums in past exhibits have largely concealed this debate from the public. The Royal Ontario Museum, which has a reputation for scientific integrity, now is faced with the problem of presenting a balanced and accurate exhibition.

Norman Golb, author of Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, Rosenberger Professor of Jewish History and Civililzation, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.

Conclusion

All of the material you see here is the product of one individual. This puppet master is highly knowledgeable of the academic life, theories, history, and publications - both in print and online - of Dr. Norman Golb of the University of Chicago's distinguished Oriental Institute. This individual has created over 80 aliases that have all been employed in the defense and promotion of the views of Dr. Golb. Additionally, this individual has spared no effort in attempting to defame, discredit, and attack scholars that disagree with Dr. Golb. Using wild accusations and ad hominem attacks, the puppet master has attempted to cast aspersions upon all scholars disagreeing with Dr. Golb, always careful never to formally accuse, but always to frame each insinuation in the form of a hypothetical or question.

The puppet master lives in New York City, New York, and regularly utilizes the NYU Bobst Library to continue his campaign online. Additionally, the original IP address traces to a building very near to NYU. Thus, it is clear that alias "Charles Gadda" is not Dr. Norman Golb (who lives in Chicago). Therefore, the questions one must ask are as follows:

1. Who lives in New York City, near the NYU Bobst Library, and would possess intimate knowledge of the details of Dr. Norman Golb's theories and publications, and would possess the motive and desire enough to carry out a campaign this prolific for the past three years?
2. Why is it that Dr. Norman Golb's letters to museums are nearly identical in timing and content to the letters, blogs, and postings of the puppet master? Is the puppet master directly informed by Dr. Golb?
3. What is the significance of the earliest of the known aliases, "Raphael", aka "Raffa105" who sends emails from raphael.g@... and raffa105@yahoo.com? Is this earliest of aliases any clue to the identity of the puppet master?
   (SEE NOTE ON THE MAR. 5, 2009 ARREST OF RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB)
4. If the puppet master is shown to be in any way a professional colleague of, conversant with, or related to Dr. Norman Golb, is Dr. Golb in any way complicit in the puppet master's campaign?
   (SEE NOTE ON THE MAR. 5, 2009 ARREST OF RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB)
5. Or, is this all just one big coincidence?

These are questions I cannot answer with my simple public domain tools. These questions must be left for those with far greater authority than I possess to answer. Until then, I make no accusations. I shall simply continue to document the overwhelming evidence that points to the simple conclusion that alias "Charles Gadda" and the other aliases are all the product of a single individual committed to the defense and promotion of the views of Dr. Norman Golb and to the systematic defamation of all scholars who oppose him.

Disclaimer

The page above takes special caution not to accuse anyone of anything. The purpose of this site is to present evidence demonstrating that all of the above named aliases are, in fact, the product of a single individual. No accusation is made regarding the identity of the individual.

UPDATE: The Arrest of Raphael Haim Golb

On Mar 5, 2009, the Manhattan District Attorney's office issued and executed a search warrant for the home of Raphael Haim Golb, University of Chicago Professor Norman Golb's son. According to a news release form the District Attorney's office, "RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB was arrested on charges of identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. The crimes in the Criminal Court Complaint occurred during the period of July to December of 2008." Thus, New York authorities have decided that they have compiled enough evidence to charge Norman Golb's son, Raphael Golb, with the criminal impersonation of Dr. Lawrence Schiffman. If this is the case, then based upon the evidence above, which links the alias "Larry Schiffman" (which was involved in the impersonation of the real Larry Schiffman) to all the other aliases (including earliest known alias, "Raphael"), the puppet master committed to the promotion and defense of the theories of University of Chicago Professor Norman Golb may very well be none other than his own son, Raphael Golb. However, for the purposes of this page, Raphael Golb will be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Raphael Golb was released on his own recognizance on Mar 6, 2009.

Norman Golb's Responses to the Arrest of Raphael Golb

• Prior to the arrest of his son, Raphael Golb, University of Chicago Professor Norman Golb responded to comments that San Diego Natural History Museum Director Dr. Michael Hager made in a National Post article concerning the phenomenon surrounding emails and letters sent to museum and media personnel regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition headed to Toronto.

  Hager stated, "It seems curious at best, that untraceable e-mails were sent to the board of directors of the San Diego Natural History Museum prior to the opening of our Dead Sea scrolls exhibition, making unfounded claims and citing Norman Golb as an expert. Even more curious is that the same thing happened in Seattle, Kansas City, Charlotte and now Toronto."

"I am unaware of any facts supporting these unusual assertions."

Rather than addressing whether or not he had knowledge of or participation in the puppet master's campaign, Dr. Golb carefully stated that he was unaware of any evidence supporting the assertion that he might be involved with the campaign.

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• Since the arrest of his son, Raphael, Dr. Norman Golb, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor of Jewish History and Civilization at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute has begun to make several public statements to reporters. In a Mar 5, 2009 New York Times piece by John Eligon entitled Identity-Theft Arrest in Dispute Over Dead Sea Scrolls, the story states:

  Reached at his office in Chicago on Thursday afternoon, Professor Golb said he was shocked at the allegations leveled against his son, who is a real estate lawyer and has a Ph.D in comparative literature from Harvard.
  “My son is an honorable person,” Professor Golb said. “He could not have done such a thing.”
  

  Professor Golb said that opposing scholars had tried to quash his views over the years through tactics like barring him from Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions. He said he saw the criminal charges as another attack on his work.
  

  “Don’t you see how there was kind of a setup?” he said. “This was to hit me harder.”

• In a Mar 5, 2009 New York Daily News piece by Melissa Grace entitled Dead Sea Scrolls stir cyberhoax: West Village attorney in forgery rap, Norman Golb seemed more defiant. The article states:

  Norman Golb defended his son, who has a doctorate in literature from Harvard and a law degree from NYU.
  "I don't think he's guilty of anything besides telling the truth about the Dead Sea Scrolls," said Norman Golb, adding that he has been blackballed from the lecture circuit.

• In a Mar 6, 2009 news item from Chicago Breaking News.com entitled Scholar's son charged with ID theft to trash dad's rival, Norman Golb stated:

  "This has everything to do with the politics of the scrolls"

and then declined to elaborate.

• In a Mar 6, 2009 news item on TMCNet.com, entitled Scholar's son charged with identity theft, harassment, Norman Golb spoke about the arrest of his son, reportedly admitting that Raphael Golb was indeed blogging in defense of his theories. The article states:

  "The fact of the matter is that if I understand it, Raphael was responding to the attacks on me," Golb said from his university office. "I suppose my son felt it was important to get things straight." He added: "This has everything to do with the politics of the scrolls."

Thus, Norman Golb purportedly admitted to a journalist that his son Raphael was actively involved in campaign to defend his views, and justified his actions as being a part of the politics of the scrolls.

• In a Mar 6, 2009 New York Post article by Dareh Gregorian and Kevin Fasick entitled Dead Sea Scroll Son in Hot Water, Norman Golb continued to respond to the arrest of his son. The article states:

  Golb's father became short of breath when he was told of his son's arrest yesterday. "I can't believe this. I can't. This is horrible," he said on the phone from Chicago.

  He said his son, who has a law degree from NYU and a Ph.D. from Harvard, "would never impersonate professor Schiffman or anyone else."

  "My dear son. He's such a brilliant young man. He wouldn't lie like this, first of all. There is something that's been trumped up here," he said.

  Golb said he knew his son was a vigorous proponent of his views and would write blogs defending him and disagreeing with Schiffman.

  "It was honest, straightforward debate," he said.

Thus, Norman Golb apparently denied that Raphael would ever impersonate Larry Schiffman, argued that the allegations have been "trumped up," and seems to have admitted that he knew his son would write blogs defending him. Since Norman Golb knew that his son was writing blogs, and since Raphael Golb never blogged in his own name, Norman Golb must have known that Raphael was bogging as an alias in his defense. Norman Golb characterized his son's activity as participating in an "honest, straightforward debate."

• In a Mar 13, 2009 Ha'aretz article by Ofri Ilani entitled Dead Sea Scrolls scholar defends son in identity theft megillah, Norman Golb repeated his earlier admission that he knew his son was using aliases to promote and defend his views. The article states:

  "Raphael, my son, is very devoted to my research. He realized years ago that there was an effort to close the door on my opinions. And so he started debating bloggers who were against me, using aliases. That's the custom these days with blogs, as I understand it," Norman Golb said.

Magen Broshi, former curator of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, responded with his thoughts on Golb. The article states:

Magen Broshi, the former curator of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, where some of the scrolls are displayed, called Norman Golb's theory, "foolishness and mean-spirited." Broshi said Norman Golb is a "mediocre scholar who went into an area not his own. He adheres in a sick way to his positions which are not accepted by anyone in the world." According to Broshi, "the world is split into two - Golb and everyone else."

• In a Mar 13, 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education article by Steve Kolowich entitled Academic 'Cyberbully' Is Accused of Harassing Judaic Researchers, Norman Golb stated that the arrest of his son is actually all about him. The article states:

  Norman Golb, however, said he suspected that his son's arrest was the latest chapter in a systematic scheme to discredit him. "As far as I'm concerned," he said, "these developments have all to do with the efforts of various traditional ... scholars to block the expression of my views."

In the story, Norman Golb went on to state that his son, Raphael, used aliases to blog in defense of his views, and for the first time appears to have confirmed that the alias was indeed alias "Charles Gadda". The article states:

Norman Golb told The Chronicle that he was "aghast and horrified at these charges. My son's only interest has been to follow my work, and—since he is a blogger and I am not a blogger—to engage in debate with other bloggers." The elder Mr. Golb added, "He used a pseudonym because that's what he preferred to do."

When a Chronicle reporter asked if that pseudonym was Charles Gadda, the older Mr. Golb replied, "Yeah, that's right."

According to the story, Norman Golb went on to explain why he published his critiques of the various museum exhibitions on the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute web site. The article explains:

Norman Golb, however, said that the opportunity to self-publish on the Web has helped him navigate around what he perceives to be the hegemony of stubborn elites who previously monopolized the channels of publication. "In all the cases where I've used the Web site," he said, "it's because of the more immediate necessity of publication, which wasn't available before Web sites existed. So the result of that is I can critique exhibits of the scrolls."

Thus, for the first time, Norman Golb has purportedly confirmed to a reporter that his son, Raphael, used the alias "Charles Gadda" to blog in his defense. It is this same alias, "Charles Gadda," that is responsible for the criticism of several scholars and their institutions, museums, and news organizations. Likewise, it is this same puppet master behind this same alias, "Charles Gadda," that is behind the identity theft of Lawrence Schiffman. Thus, according to published news reports, Raphael Haim Golb's father, Dr. Norman Golb, has confirmed in various comments to reporters the identity of alias "Charles Gadda": his son, Raphael Haim Golb. While this page has stopped short of accusing anyone of being alias "Charles Gadda" and the other aliases, Norman Golb appears to have confirmed the puppet master's identity for us. According to press reports quoting Norman Golb, the puppet master is his son, Raphael Haim Golb.

Further response from Norman Golb will be logged here. This site is a work in progress.

Press about the Arrest of Raphael Golb

• New York County District Attorney's Office http://manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2009-03-05.shtml
  

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau today announced the arrest of a 49-year-old man for creating multiple aliases to engage in a campaign of impersonation and harassment relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls and scholars of opposing viewpoints.
The defendant, RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB, was arrested on charges of identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. The crimes in the Criminal Court Complaint occurred during the period of July to December of 2008. more...