Next week: Why Did Raphael Golb Send "Weird" Emails? Dead Sea Scrolls

Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745
Enlightenment  satirist
wrote a pretty weird but Modest Proposal

A discussion of what the charge of "impersonation" might have meant to the jury that found Raphael Golb guilty of it.

Followed by discussion of what the charge of "impersonation" may not have meant to the jury.



An examination of emails that Raphael Golb sent, which witness for the prosecution Dean Stimpson of New York University said Dr. Schiffman's colleagues described as "weird."

Raphael Golb Describes Creating the Name 'Jonathan Seidel'- Dead Sea Scrolls

Frederick Seidel's poetry collection

"Ooga Booga" won the 2006 

Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

(click for website)

Raphael Golb testified that

he was the inspiration 

for the name 'Jonathan Seidel'

Raphael Golb gave a convincing explanation of how he created the name "Jonathan Seidel," testifying on his own behalf in the Dead Sea Scrolls trial. Raphael described, in detail, the exact creative process by which he crafted that name.

A New Way to Look at a Courtroom- Raphael Golb, Dead Sea Scrolls

Prosecuting attorney Antoine Quentin Fouquier de Tinville,
 who had engineered the Terror, and who signed off
on Robespierre's execution, was within days
guillotined for engineering the Terror, in 1795,
"condemned by his own hand."

The District Attorney's office sought up to 4 years for Raphael Golb, upstate in Reikers Island State Penitentiary. And in fact after the sentencing, rather than let Raphael wait for the Appeals office to open in 2 hours, it was ruled that Raphael should be shackled immediately and sent upstate on the very next bus to Rikers Island State Penitentiary. I wonder what horrendous crimes they thought Raphael Golb might have committed in those 2 hours. 

I like to compare Raphael Golb's sentence to that of a man I once met who also served 4 years in the same State Penitentiary, for the rape of a woman he noticed jogging along the parkway. The rest was parole.

The system can be lopsided, capricious, arbitrary.


This was the first trial I ever saw, and it did indeed remind me of a game, with agreed-upon rules: 

Two Lawyers, their Personal Styles of Speaking- Raphael Golb, Dead Sea Scrolls

Summation to the Jury

The closing arguments by the two attorneys to the jury, in the Dead Sea Scrolls trial of Raphael Golb, was an interesting study in contrasts. One of Golb's two lawyers, summing up to the jury in Raphael's defense, relied on emotion to appeal to the jury: he was expansive and inclusive, warm, and often used generous terms in describing others.

What Exactly Was Raphael Golb Convicted Of? -Dead Sea Scrolls Trial

Equality, Liberty, Fraternity
French Revolution, Masonic emblem

People know that Raphael Golb was found "guilty" in criminal court last week. But what do people think he was found "guilty" of?

I suspect a lot of people assume Raphael Golb was found "guilty" of making up "lies" about Dr. Lawrence Schiffman plagiarizing his father.

I thought making up a lie about someone is "defamation" or "libel." And if the court decides there could possibly be some plausibility to the accusation, it's not "defamation" anymore. And I thought that's a matter for civil court to figure out.

LIST of sites & articles //Raphael Golb, Dead Sea Scrolls Trial

the Prophet Jeremiah,

Michelangelo

LIST of ARTICLES and BLOGS abt Raphael Golb, Dead Sea Scrolls Trial:

Reasonable Doubt: Raphael Golb Did Not Know of a Jonathan Seidel- Dead Sea Scrolls trial

Poet Frederick Seidel,

in 2006 called

"the best

American poet writing today"

by the New York Sun

(click for website)

Raphael Golb testified that

he was the inspiration

for the name 'Jonathan Seidel'

photo: Mark Mahane

NO 'REASONABLE DOUBT'!
Raphael Golb testified on his own behalf that he made up the name "Jonathan Seidel," not knowing there was a Rabbi and professor across the country in Oregon who happened to have that name, who had once given a seminar on the Dead Sea Scrolls- if I remember correctly, out in Oregon, years ago.
Raphael said he used the name 'Jonathan Seidel" in some emails he sent to museums complaining about biased exhibits.

Please keep in mind while you read this, that for each of the several misdemeanors incurred against Rabbi "Jonathan Seidel," the judge gave Raphael 3-month (concurrent) prison sentences in Rikers Island State Penitentiary.

The jury in the Dead Sea Scrolls case was to decide if there was "reasonable doubt" as to whether Raphael Golb made up the name "Jonathan Seidel" or not. The jury found no "reasonable doubt." The jury decided that there was absolutely no possibility that Raphael Golb might have invented the name 'Jonathan Seidel" as he said, and they ruled him guilty of several criminal counts against Rabbi Jonathan Seidel, "beyond a reasonable doubt."