Dead Sea Scrolls figure charged with identity theft

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NEW YORK (JTA) — The son of a Dead Sea Scrolls expert was accused of identity theft.

Raphael Golb, a real-estate lawyer in New York City, was arrested Thursday and charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment, The New York Times reported.

Golb is accused of impersonating a New York University professor who differed with Golb’s father about the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a set of ancient religious texts discovered near the Dead Sea settlement of Qumran in the 1940s and 50s.

Prosecutors say Golb used a fake e-mail address in the name of the professor, Lawrence Schiffman, to fabricate an admission that Schiffman had plagiarized his father’s work.

Golb faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

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