North Carolina man charged with mailing antisemitic threat to Georgia rabbi
Man could face up to five years in prison after mailing postcard with Nazi references to Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar that included the words ‘Jews are rats’
MACON, Georgia — A North Carolina man has been charged in federal court with mailing a threatening postcard to a Georgia rabbi who had been outspoken in supporting a new state law that defines antisemitism.
Ariel Collazo Ramos of High Point, North Carolina, faces up to five years in prison if he is convicted of mailing threatening communications, federal prosecutors for the Middle District of Georgia said in a news release Thursday.
A grand jury indicted Ramos, 31, last month, according to court records, and the document was unsealed Thursday following his arrest.
The indictment accuses Ramos of mailing a postcard in February to Elizabeth Bahar, the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Macon. Written on the postcard, the indictment said, was a reference to the poison gas Nazis used to kill more than one million Jews during World War II as well as the words “Jews are rats.”
It was mailed after Bahar testified before Georgia lawmakers in January to support defining antisemitism into state law. The proposal, which has since become law, aims to help Georgia prosecutors identify hate crimes and acts of illegal discrimination.
It was not immediately known if Ramos had an attorney to represent him, and US District Court records did not list one. The indictment said Ramos operated an online business from his home that sold “candles, postcards, and other products depicting racial, white nationalist themes.”
Bahar has been with Temple Beth Israel since 2020. She was ordained in 2009 by Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, where she also earned her Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters. She is president of the South East Central Conference of American Rabbis and in 2015 was recognized by The Forward as one of “America’s 33 Most Inspirational Rabbis.”
Bahar told local Macon TV news station 13WMAZ that in the last six months of 2023, there had been five separate incidents of antisemitic threats and messages targeting her and her temple.
She told the station that she believed Ramos should be jailed. “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,” Bahar said.
Now that Georgia has passed its state law on antisemitism, Bahar said antisemitism will still exist, but the law will help. “It simply says we don’t welcome that in the public square. If you’re going to have those thoughts, please harbor them in your own private space.”
