Woman sentenced for hundreds of phone threats against Tree of Life – The Forward

The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Photo by Benyamin Cohen

By Louis Keene
June 3, 2024

A woman who made hundreds of threatening phone calls to the Tree of Life synagogue and its executive director was sentenced Thursday to 32 months in prison and three years of supervised release, capping a saga that began just months after that 11 worshipers were killed there in an anti-Semitic act. attack.

Melanie Harris, 59, made her first phone call to the synagogue and its executive director, Joel Goldstein, in February 2019. In various voicemails left over the following years, she referenced the victims of the October massacre 2018, used anti-Semitic slurs and said, “I’m going to cut your head off.”

Harris was arrested in March 2023 in Riverside, California, and pleaded guilty to knowingly and intentionally transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce.

The Tree of Life Synagogue did not respond to a request for comment.

After serving Tree of Life for more than 20 years, Goldstein left his position and moved with his family to Florida, but the calls continued. Harris called him more than 240 times in total, according to the plea agreement, including one day in October 2022 in which she left 15 voicemails for Goldstein.

Goldstein raised his concerns with the ADL's South Florida office, which forwarded them to the FBI, leading to Harris' arrest. She pleaded guilty in October 2023.

“The nature of his threats of violence toward the victims and their faith was clearly intended to evoke a climate of fear and intimidation,” Jeffrey B. Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, said in a statement. . “Such conduct cannot be tolerated.”

Goldstein and Harris' attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

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