Federal authorities have arrested a North Carolina man accused of mailing antisemitic death threats to Jewish organizations and leaders across multiple states.
Brian Charles, of Charlotte, N.C., faces federal charges of mailing threatening communications after the FBI linked him to graphic handwritten letters sent in June and July to recipients in Florida and Washington, D.C. The criminal complaint filed in federal court alleges Charles threatened to kill Jewish people and targeted a Holocaust memorial, major Jewish advocacy groups, and even U.S. Secret Service protectees.
The letters contained violent language directed at Jewish recipients. “I am going to destroy many Jews,” one stated. Another warned, “Many shall die by my wrath,” according to the complaint.
Investigators identified Charles through a latent fingerprint found on a letter sent to AJC Palm Beach, the complaint says. Several envelopes also bore his name and a Charlotte return address. Forensic examiners matched Charles’s fingerprint to the AJC letter, while comparisons involving other letters remained pending.
The threats reached multiple high-profile targets. The Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach received a letter addressed to two board members. AJC Palm Beach got another. An AIPAC executive received letters at a former home address in Palm Beach County and at AIPAC’s Washington office. Two U.S. Secret Service protectees were sent a letter at a Jupiter, Fla., address, according to the complaint.
Charles has a prior federal record for similar crimes. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to five counts of mailing threatening communications in New Mexico and was sentenced to 542 days in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He violated that supervised release multiple times, the complaint notes.
Vlad Khaykin, head of global advocacy at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, addressed the scope of the alleged threats in an interview with JNS. “Multiple Jewish institutions and individuals, including a Holocaust memorial, were sent letters threatening death and collective punishment against Jews,” he said. “Such threats are intended not merely to offend, but to terrorize: to make Jewish Americans afraid to open their mail, enter their institutions or live openly as Jews.”
The arrest comes as antisemitic incidents remain at historically elevated levels nationwide. The FBI’s 2024 hate-crime data showed Jews were targeted in 69% of reported religiously motivated hate crimes, with 1,938 anti-Jewish incidents recorded—the highest number since the bureau began collecting such data in 1991.
“Behind every statistic are families, students, worshippers and institutions forced to consider security before they can consider community,” Khaykin told JNS. “The unmistakable message is that Jewish Americans remain disproportionately targeted, and that the danger is not confined to any one city, institution or ideology.”
He framed the case as a broader test of societal response to hatred. “The moral test of a society is not whether hatred exists, but whether decent people and responsible institutions confront it before words become violence,” Khaykin said. “A threat against Jews is also a challenge to America’s promise that every person may live and worship in safety. Hate seeks silence and surrender. Our answer must be vigilance, solidarity and the equal protection of the law.”
Khaykin thanked law enforcement for the arrest, noting that “accountability begins with demonstrating that threats against Jewish lives will never be dismissed as harmless rhetoric,” He added that “antisemitism is not simply a prejudice remembered from history. Sadly, it is an urgent American reality.”
JNS had reported exclusively in July that AJC and AIPAC leaders received the graphic handwritten letters, including at their homes. An AJC spokesman confirmed at that time that the organization was cooperating with law enforcement.
Charles remains in federal custody pending further proceedings.