A North Carolina man is charged with mailing an antisemitic threat to a Georgia rabbi

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A North Carolina man has been charged in federal 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 1 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 U.S. 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.”