THIS IS STRANGE. AND SAD. Norman Golb's son has reportedly been arrested and charged with faking internet identities to discredit his father's scholarly rivals.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
March 5, 2009

Contact: Alicia Maxey Greene
212-335-9400

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.

The investigation leading to today’s arrest revealed that GOLB engaged in a systematic scheme on the Internet, using dozens of Internet aliases, in order to influence and affect debate on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in order to harass Dead Sea Scrolls scholars who disagree with his viewpoint. GOLB used computers at New York University (NYU) in an attempt to mask his true identity when conducting this Internet scheme. He gained access to NYU computers by virtue of being a graduate of the university, and having made donations to its library fund.

The investigation, which included a court-authorized search warrant that was executed this morning at GOLB’s apartment, began in response to a complaint by Lawrence Schiffman, Ph.D., that he was impersonated over the Internet. Dr. Schiffman is a NYU professor, chairman of the Hebrew & Judaic Studies Department and a leading scholar in the field of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

I wish this were a hoax, but it seems to be real. Whoever turns out to be responsible, I'm sorry to hear that Larry Schiffman and others were subjected to this kind of harassment.

I remember back in the late 1980s I met a son of Golb, perhaps this one, at a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls by Magen Broshi at Harvard University. This son was certainly very keen on his father's work (he was passing out copies of one of his articles), but I wouldn't have thought that keen. The investigation is ongoing, so we'll see what comes of it.

The AP at Newsday has a brief notice [update: now considerably expanded] of the arrest and the Village Voice blog has comments.

For background on Norman Golb's somewhat controversial work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, go here and follow the links.