A North Carolina man arrested and charged with using the U.S. Postal Service to threaten a Macon religious leader allegedly sent similar materials to a Georgia State Rep. Esther Panitch, an Israeli-owned business, and a synagogue in Atlanta.
Ariel E. Collazo Ramos, 31, of High Point, N.C., operates from his home Patriot Candle Co., which sells postcards, candles, and other products with antisemitic messages and graphic images from the Holocaust.
According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office-Middle District of Georgia, Ramos has been charged with one count of mailing threatening communications to Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel in Macon. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Court documents show he’s sent similar postcards to Jewish groups in Georgia, West Virginia and New York.
The postcard arrived at the home of Rep. Panitch, the sole Jewish member of the Georgia House of Representatives, days before the passage of a bill to define antisemitism in the Georgia legislature.
The FBI was alerted to similar mailings at Ali’s Cookies, a bakery in Emory Village owned by Israeli Nofar Shablis, and The Temple synagogue on Peachtree Street in Midtown.
Patriot Candle Co. offers an online service to complete the postcard and mail it. The company’s website states, “These are mailed out with postcard postage, so no tracking will be available.”
Court documents also show Ramos bragged about his activity online.
