New York court to hear Dead Sea Scrolls first amendment case
New York court to hear Dead Sea Scrolls first amendment case
Case centres around man who argues that mocking scholars in academic debate about Scrolls is protected by first amendment
Associated Press in New York
theguardian.com, Monday 24 March 2014 16.14 EDT
New York court to hear Dead Sea Scrolls first amendment case
New York's highest court on Tuesday will consider whether to overturn convictions in the Internet impersonation case of a man who argues that mocking scholars in an academic debate about the Dead Sea Scrolls was protected by the first amendment.
Raphael Golb, an attorney and writer, was convicted of identity theft and other charges for disguising his identity in email messages and blog posts from 2006 to 2009 to discredit detractors of his father, a University of Chicago professor, in a dispute over the scrolls' origins. The more than 2,000-year-old documents, found in the 1940s in what is now Israel, contain the earliest known versions of portions of the Hebrew Bible.
Many scholars, including New York University Judaic studies chairman Lawrence Schiffman, say the texts were assembled by a sect known as the Essenes. Others including Norman Golb, a University of Chicago historian and Golb's father believe the writings were the work of a range of Jewish groups and communities, gathered from libraries in Jerusalem and hidden in caves near Qumran to protect them during a Roman invasion in about 70 AD.
Golb's lawyer argues that the trial judge's jury instructions failed to protect his client's first amendment rights and led to his convictions "precisely because his online impersonations called attention to, condemned and mocked alleged wrongdoing on the part of the Scroll monopolists and exhibitors."
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/mar/24/dead-sea-scrolls-case-new-york-court
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)struggle4progress
(118,285 posts)Lawrence Schiffman, formerly professor at New York University and now vice provost for Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University. From larry.schiffman@gmail.com, Golb sent emails to the dean, the provost, and the faculty of the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU where Schiffman was formerly the chair. In the emails, the fictional Schiffman admitted to having plagiarized the work of Norman Golb, professor at the University of Chicagos prestigious Oriental Institute, Dead Sea Scrolls scholarand also Raphaels father ... Raphael Golb admits to having sent the email, but he maintains that it was an act of parody, rather than criminal impersonation ... In September 2010, Golb was convicted before Judge Carol Berkman of 30 counts of identity fraud, harassment, forgery, and criminal impersonation of Lawrence Schiffman ...
Dead Sea Scrolls Go to Court
A brilliant young Harvard Ph.D. faces jail for impersonating a Bible scholarand rival of his father
By Batya Ungar-Sargon
January 14, 2013 7:00 AM
Pretending to be someone, and acting in a manner apparently contrived to create the impression that person has sent an email confessing to plagiarism, might involve neither blasphemy nor parody
Hestia
(3,818 posts)They were purposely withheld from public eyes for over 20 years and two incidents forced the holders of the Scrolls to finally release them (though not all). It seems the interpreters didn't like what they were translating, at that time may have changed the face of Judaism and Christianity, but they have been suppressed for so long now, nobody cares anymore.
I am not sure if anyone has noticed, but when Israel releases anything on the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is a little bitty bit with a couple of lines from a scroll. There are over 80 of them and Israel still to this day refuses to release or allow outside scholars in to view and translate all the scrolls.
1 - Nag Hammadi scrolls were found around the same time in Egypt and scholars released copies of the scrolls immediately rather than being held by the Egyptian government.
2 - The founder of Bechtel's wife (forget her name) was given photographed copies of the scrolls because she was instrumental in funding for housing and interpreting the scrolls. In her will, she gave these photographs to a university in California, who then released them immediately to scholars.
Personally, I think that the biggest reason Israel refuses to show everything is because there is a copy of the Corpus Hermeticum included with the scrolls - an entirely different take on Deity and the Cosmos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Hermeticum
I think it really bothers Judaic scholars that this particular was actually studied by anyone in Israel/Judea in early history.
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It really surprises me that the scientific community is not more aware of Hermetics and the writings, including the Corpus Hermeticum - it is the science of the Mind that is discussed.