North Carolina man convicted of hate crime for sending antisemitic postcards to Macon rabbi

Caption

Rep. Esther Panitch debates the RFRA bill April 2, 2025.

Credit: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Jurors determined Tuesday afternoon that the antisemitic postcards a North Carolina man sent to a Macon rabbi and an Atlanta lawmaker were a hate crime.

The trial for Ariel Collazo Ramos, of High Point, North Carolina, started Monday, with jurors beginning deliberation Tuesday afternoon. After roughly three hours, jurors found Ramos guilty of mailing threatening communications. The verdict established that Ramos made Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar, of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, and Georgia State Rep. Esther Panitch fear for their lives.

Jurors also established that the antisemitic postcards were a hate crime. He will face more than five years in prison. He also could face a $250,000 fine.

Ramos’ sentencing date has not been scheduled as of publication.

Postcards made references to Holocaust

Before the incidents that led to Ramoes’ charges, Bahar and Panitch were vocal for their support for House Bill 30 in January 2024, state legislation which more formally recognizes antisemitism in Georgia. Panitch was the co-author of the bill and Bahar testified in support of it.

After the bill was passed, both Bahar and Panitch received postcards that showed a sketch comparing Jewish people to rats as well as an offer for a 10% discount if the reader bought “Zyklon B,” which seemed to be a reference to the hydrogen cyanide gas used by Nazis during the Holocaust. The postcard had a logo for the Patriot Candle Company, a business Ramos operated from his home in North Carolina, leading to his arrest.

“Zyklon B” was a candle Ramos was selling through his company, and the code shown in the postcard for the discount actually worked, according to Barry Debrow Jr., Ramos’ attorney. He attempted to argue that Ramos was not guilty of sending threatening messages because he didn’t have a plan to harm either of the Jewish leaders. He sent the postcards as “ragebait,” Debrow argued. Debrow also argued that Ramos had the right to send the cards under the First Amendment.

However, U.S. Attorney William Keyes convinced the jury panel that Ramos idolized white nationalism, since they saw pictures of his home in North Carolina after he was arrested, which featured portraits of Adolf Hitler, the swastika and other white nationalist memorabilia.

Keyes showed jurors other postcards Ramos made, which included Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank, who wrote The Diary of a Young Girl recounting her experience in the Holocaust, in front of a concentration camp.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Macon Telegraph.