A Maryland man was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to mailing threatening letters to Jewish institutions, according to a March 16 press release.
Clift Seferlis of Garrett Park, Maryland, faces 37 months in prison, three years of supervised release, a $40,000 fine and a $2,000 special assignment, the United States Department of Justice announced.
In November, Seferlis, 55, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs arising from threats sent to Jewish organizations.
Between March 2024 and June 2025, Seferlis targeted at least 25 Jewish institutions across Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts with more than three dozen threatening letters and postcards. The institutions included synagogues, museums, community centers, schools, nonprofit organizations and a Jewish deli.
“For more than a year, the defendant terrorized Jewish communities across the country, robbing his victims of their peace and security,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the press release. “The defendant’s sentence should be a warning to all that religious-based terror will not be tolerated in this country.”
Local Jewish institutions affected include organizations in Washington, D.C., Gaithersburg, Rockville, Fairfax and Falls Church. The letters sent to four of the synagogues included the threatened use of a dangerous weapon, fire or explosives.
“Over the past 18 months, nearly every Jewish institution in the Greater Washington area, along with many others along the East Coast” has received Seferlis’ letters, according to a statement by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s security arm JShield.
As incidents continued along the east coast, the Secure Community Network, JShield, the Anti-Defamation League, the FBI and other law enforcement bodies collaborated to consolidate evidence, report information to authorities and supported affected facilities throughout the investigation, according to a Federation press release.
“This case shows what’s possible when a community is engaged, prepared, and connected,” Gil Preuss, the Federation’s CEO, said in the press release. “Individually, these letters may have appeared isolated. But when community members report them to JShield, our team was able to recognize the emerging pattern locally, connect it to related incidents beyond our region, and coordinate with national partners and law enforcement.”
He cited JShield Executive Director Rusty Rosenthal’s maxim: “Safety is a shared responsibility.”
“It was that shared vigilance that led to accountability in this case,” Preuss said.
“The actions taken to reach today’s sentencing have been a model of the critical partnerships between law enforcement, the Jewish community, and government,” Eric Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in a press release. “It is exactly why the Jewish Federation in every community has created and funded a community security initiative that connects every single Jewish institution to a professionally run security program, and why we are urging government action to provide additional support to law enforcement and Jewish institutions under threat of attack.”
