NYTIMES
Early one morning in March, the law banged on the door of an apartment on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village. Investigators had a warrant to arrest Raphael Haim Golb and seize his computer. He was caught red-handed.
Mr. Golb is, or was, a guerrilla fighter in a cyberbrawl over the Dead Sea Scrolls, a war about the origins of 2,000-year-old documents that has consumed the energy of academics around the globe.
He was being arrested for fighting dirty.
Mr. Golb is 49 years old and had 50 e-mail aliases. He used pseudonyms to post on blogs. Under the name of a professor he was trying to undermine, prosecutors charged, Mr. Golb wrote a quasi confession to plagiarism and circulated it among students and officials at New York University.[...]
Early one morning in March, the law banged on the door of an apartment on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village. Investigators had a warrant to arrest Raphael Haim Golb and seize his computer. He was caught red-handed.
Mr. Golb is, or was, a guerrilla fighter in a cyberbrawl over the Dead Sea Scrolls, a war about the origins of 2,000-year-old documents that has consumed the energy of academics around the globe.
He was being arrested for fighting dirty.
Mr. Golb is 49 years old and had 50 e-mail aliases. He used pseudonyms to post on blogs. Under the name of a professor he was trying to undermine, prosecutors charged, Mr. Golb wrote a quasi confession to plagiarism and circulated it among students and officials at New York University.[...]
I wonder if Tropper incriminated himself by posting as Roni here, Tropper was posting here regarding the money he took from Guma. He also sent a forged letter to this blog and to r’ yodel.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what kind of advices he gets from his attorney.
I hope the law enforcement would not come after me, saying I am only pretending to be a tzadik
Rabbi Zahavy has had the profound (and all too rare) human decency to speak out on this case at
ReplyDeletehttp://tzvee.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-raphael-golb-guilty.html
He concludes: "No, as we see it Raphael Golb ... is not guilty of any crime or tort." The piece is well worth the read.
P.s. The First Amendment brief in the case, which is a public document, has been circulating; it is available at
http://scrollmotions.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/raphael-golb-first-amendment-motion.pdf
I am surprised that Rabbi Dr. Zahavy takes the seriousness of what Golb did so lightly. No mention of geneivas daas and other issurim and his ignorance of a new Federal law prohibiting harassment on the internet even if there is no tangible loss.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the same crime that Rubashkin's people perpetrated on critics and they are lucky that the impersonated victims did not press charges with the DA.
Rabbi Dr. Zahavy's piece should be a reminder and a rebuke to all of us. No, the rabbi did not specifically mention geneivas daas, but he did refer to the allegations concerning Dr. Schiffman's plagiarism, which certainly go to the heart of what geneivas daas is about.
ReplyDeleteIn our community, at least where I grew up, we have, and we must have, certain basic human principles against pachdoness, begidah and malshiness. There was no reason to go to the police and send someone to jail over such an affair. If he felt he had been wronged, the professor should have had the courage and dignity to file a civil suit against his rival's son.
There is an angle to this sad story that people have not yet mentioned.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Jewish law, should there be "any disagreement between Jews, they should turn to a Jewish Beis Din for their legal proceedings according to Jewish law." In fact, it is forbidden to "go to a non-Jewish court, or to their offices or officers," under pain of excommunication.
See the pertinent statement of 70 orthodox rabbis, at
http://www.mishpattsedek.com/KolKoreh-70Rabbis.htm
Does this law not apply to Dr. Schiffman, an orthodox Jew who, it would appear, is also an ordained rabbi? And if it does apply to him, where is this tragic story heading?
According to Jewish law, should there be "any disagreement between Jews, they should turn to a Jewish Beis Din for their legal proceedings according to Jewish law." In fact, it is forbidden to "go to a non-Jewish court, or to their offices or officers," under pain of excommunication.
ReplyDelete==================
you are assuming that this wasn't done. Do you have proof?
In addition that is relevant only when the other side will in fact go to beis din and that the beis din has the power to prevent loss. If there is a significant loss the halacha is different.
I only read what has appeared here and in a few other places. I haven't seen anything said of such a procedure having been followed -- the news accounts simply say that Schiffman went to someone he knew at the FBI, who referred him to the Manhattan District Attorney. Nor has anything been said of any loss. Was there a loss? Rabbi Zahavy doesn't appear to think so. Again, the information provided is inadequate, but this story seems to have many layers of unexamined complexity.
ReplyDeleteFurther motions have now been filed in this case. See
ReplyDeletehttp://scrollmotions.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/dead-sea-scrolls-controversy-motion1.pdf
and
http://scrollmotions.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/email-and-access-motion.pdf
The longer of the two motions provides an abundant amount of background information about the Dead Sea Scrolls controversy as concerns Norman Golb and Lawrence Schiffman.
On this case, see now:
ReplyDeletehttp://tzvee.blogspot.com/2010/08/post-wacky-golb-schiffman-dead-sea.html
http://blog.simplejustice.us/2010/07/20/a-prosecution-2000-years-in-the-making.aspx
http://aliasesofjeffreygibson.blogspot.com/2010/05/people-of-state-of-new-york-against.html