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Tag: Jewish institutions

  • ‘You ready?’: Montgomery Co. man pleads guilty to mailing threats against Jewish institutions in DC region – WTOP News

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    Clift Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, entered guilty pleas for 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs.

    A Montgomery County, Maryland, man has pleaded guilty in federal court to mailing threatening letters and postcards to more than a dozen Jewish institutions in Maryland, Virginia, D.C. and elsewhere over the past 18 months, suggesting that buildings would be destroyed and people killed.

    Clift Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, entered guilty pleas Monday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs. While most of the threats involved Jewish institutions in the D.C. area, some were mailed from Pennsylvania, where Seferlis visited often.

    According to Seferlis’s plea memorandum, between March 2024 and June 2025, he used the U.S. mail system to send at least 40 letters and two postcards to more than 25 Jewish organizations and entities, including synagogues, Jewish museums, community centers, schools, nonprofit organizations and a delicatessen.

    Federal prosecutors determined all of the letters were composed on the same typewriter, and many included news articles about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The threatening postcards were handwritten, in block letters.

    A letter to a synagogue in Gaithersburg invoked the German word “Kristallnacht,” which refers to the “Night of Broken Glass,” when anti-Jewish attacks took place in Germany and Austria, on Nov. 9, 1938.

    In a footnote in the plea document, prosecutors explained: “Nazis and other Germans burned more than 1,400 synagogues, vandalized thousands of Jewish businesses, imprisoned more than 20,000 Jewish men, and assaulted and killed hundreds of Jewish people.”

    In the letter to one of the houses of worship, Seferlis typed: “You do know Kristallnacht is very strong and sooner than later there is going to be PLENTY of broken glass at your synagogue.”

    A letter to another institution asked rhetorically, “And you wonder why that nice young couple were gunned down in front of the museum in DC,” suggesting it could happen again. Prosecutors said Seferlis was referring to the killing of two staff members at the Israel Embassy, who were shot near the Capital Jewish Museum in Northwest, D.C. in May 2025.

    Another letter, addressed to a Jewish school in Rockville included an article about an Israeli attack in Lebanon. Seferlis wrote: “Does the image mean anything to you? Are you proud to be part of without doubt the most hated diaspora on earth, one with no end to their cruelty? Of course you are not moved by this. You are a jew. Perhaps it might be more effective when the school is in ruins.”

    A letter to a rabbi at a synagogue in D.C. included, “Are you concerned for the well being of your congregants?… you might want to be.”

    A postcard mailed from Philadelphia included: “Gaza is in ruins. Countless dead. And you want to tell your story. Your story soon will be trying to rebuild your building when we are done playing IDF on it. You ready?” IDF stands for Israel Defense Forces, the national military of Israel.

    According to the plea agreement, when Seferlis is sentenced on March 16, 2026, prosecutors and the defense will each argue for what they believe is an appropriate sentence.

    In a news release, the U.S. Department of Justice said when Seferlis is sentenced in March, he faces a maximum penalty of 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $5,650,000 fine.

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    Neal Augenstein

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  • Suspected Hamas member arrested in Germany

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    German prosecutors said on Wednesday they have arrested a suspected Hamas member accused of procuring weapons that they assume were intended for attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions.

    The suspect was arrested on the motorway as he entered Germany from the Czech Republic, the federal public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe said.

    He is to be brought before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe, who will decide whether he is to be remanded in custody.

    Prosecutors accuse the Lebanese-born suspect of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

    In August, he allegedly procured a fully automatic rifle, eight pistols and over 600 rounds of ammunition in Germany. He is then believed to have transported them to Berlin to pass them to another suspected Hamas member who was already in pre-trial detention.

    The weapons and ammunition were seized at the time of the arrest.

    The Danish police also searched premises belonging to the man and to another suspect in Copenhagen and the surrounding area, prosecutors said.

    Last month, German prosecutors arrested three suspected Hamas members in Berlin, who are in pre-trial detention.

    The three suspects, including a naturalized Lebanese-born man and a naturalized Syrian-born man, are accused of having procured firearms and ammunition since at least the summer of 2025.

    “The weapons were to be used by Hamas for assassinations targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany,” prosecutors said. However, there was apparently no concrete plan for an attack.

    In early November, a weapons cache was found in Vienna linked to the three suspects arrested in Berlin. Austria’s DSN domestic intelligence agency said five handguns and 10 magazines were seized.

    “The weapons cache is attributed to structures of the terrorist organization Hamas operating abroad,” the DSN said.

    Last week, another man was arrested in London who is alleged to have transported weapons to Vienna as a member of Hamas. According to the DSN, the man is a 39-year-old British citizen. He is to be extradited to Germany.

    The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage. The onslaught sparked the Gaza war.

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