The federal government arrested Clift A. Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, Md., and charged him with sending “numerous” threats to Jewish institutions since March 2024.
“The defendant is alleged to have sent numerous written threats through the mail to Jewish organizations and entities located in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere,” the Justice Department stated on Tuesday.
“Many of these letters threaten the Jewish institutions and contain references to Gaza, Israel or events in which Jewish people were killed or otherwise attacked,” the department said. “The letters then suggest that the recipients might become victims of similar acts of violence.”
Per the criminal complaint, which JNS viewed, recent letters referred specifically to the gunman killing two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 22.
“I just wanted to say you are going to have to be more reliant than ever on your donors. But, at some point, that money too will become less and less,” the defendant allegedly wrote to a Jewish institution in Philadelphia.
The letter added that the hatred toward the institution, “and especially the nation of Israel, is at an all-time high and is only getting worse.” It asked the institution’s staff if, deep down,” it really cares “about what is going on in Gaza,” asking whether it would “take something” happening to the “beloved” institution “to make that happen.”
Other threatening letters, which Seferlis allegedly sent to a Jewish institution, referred to the latter’s “many big open windows,” “Kristallnacht,” “anger and rage” and a need in the future to “rebuild” the site after it is destroyed.
Seferlis, who was arrested in Maryland on Monday, is due to be arraigned in court in Philadelphia today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania told JNS.
According to a copy of the complaint, which JNS viewed, 34 letters and two postcards have been sent to Jewish institutions in Washington, Virginia (Fairfax, Richmond, Arlington and Falls Church), Maryland (Rockville) and Pennsylvania (State College).
“While the letters are not signed, they are sufficiently similar to one another to support an inference that they have all been written by the same person or persons,” according to the complaint. “All of the letters appear to be typewritten from a typewriter with the same print font, size and spacing, and the addresses on the envelopes containing the letters also appear to be typewritten from a typewriter with the same print font, size and spacing.”
“The letters are also similar in style, with most containing only a few sentences and/or phrases, often separated by ellipses,” the complaint states. “At least 25 of the letters have been accompanied by articles cut from The Washington Post newspaper that reference either Israel, Gaza or other matters relating to Jewish people or Israel.”
Many of the letters were addressed, by name, to specific staff members at the Jewish institutions, per the complaint.
Seferlis admitted to the FBI on Monday morning that “he wrote and transmitted numerous threatening letters through the U.S. mails,” according to the complaint, which states that the defendant “further admitted that he knew his mailings were likely to intimidate and threaten the recipients of those mailings and admitted that was his purpose in transmitting the mailings.”
According to Seferlis’s LinkedIn page, he is an architectural historian, masonry worker and licensed tour guide in Washington and New York City.
He told the FBI that he had given tours at the Philadelphia Jewish institution and “was planning to give another such tour on Thursday, June 19, 2025,” per the complaint.
Fingerprints on two of the envelopes match those of Seferlis, and law enforcement recovered copies of the Post from the defendant’s home with the relevant articles cut out, per the complaint. Investigators also found a typewriter in his home and were able to connect him to the places where the letters were mailed, the complaint states.
Someone by Seferlis’s name has photos of the Federal Triangle and of Josep Clarà’s sculpture “Serenity,” both in Washington, listed on the National Gallery of Art website.