High Point man faces federal charge for allegedly sending antisemitic threat to Georgia rabbi

HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) – A High Point man is accused of mailing antisemitic threats to a rabbi in Georgia, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia .

Ariel E. Collazo Ramos, 31, of High Point, is charged with one count of mailing threatening communications. He was taken into custody on Thursday.

Ramos reportedly sent a threatening postcard to the home address of Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia. She received it on Feb. 1.

The postcard was a handwritten fake advertisement for Zyklon B, the chemical that Nazi Germany used in its deadly gas chambers during the Holocaust. The postcard also had an antisemitic illustration and the words “Jews are rats.”

According to WMAZ , Bahar said she and her temple faced five cases of antisemitic threats and messages in the second half of 2023, including a swatting incident.

Bahar told WMAZ, “Is it a crime to have bad thoughts? No. Is it a crime to be racist? No. Is it a crime to act on it? Yeah.”

Citing court documents, the news outlet reports that Collazo Ramos also sent the same postcard to Esther Panitch, the sole Jewish member of the Georgia General Assembly who had also sponsored a bill defining antisemitism which would be signed into law the following day. He is also accused of setting similar postcards to Jewish groups in Georgia, West Virginia and New York.

If convicted, Collazo Ramos will receive a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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