A man described by federal prosecutors as a neo-Nazi has been convicted of a hate crime targeted against Georgia House Representative Esther Panitch.
Ariel Collazo Ramos, 32, of High Point, North Carolina, was found guilty of one count of mailing threatening communications.
According to court documents, Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, GA, testified before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee in support of an antisemitism bill co-sponsored by State Representative Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia House of Representatives. It was signed into law on Jan. 31, 2024.
Prosecutors say Ramos sent Panitch and Bahar antisemitic postcards around the same time as the signing of the bill.
Investigators say the postcards read “Jews are rats,” with a drawing of a man wearing a rat costume.