Pennsylvania man charged over alleged online threats to kill Jews, attack synagogues

Eric Holman, 26, of Erie, Pa., is facing a federal charge after he admitted to posting a series of violent antisemitic threats online, including calls to attack synagogues, between April and June, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Aug. 6.

Holman is charged with transmitting interstate communications containing threats to injure another person, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if convicted.

“I can’t wait to use U.S. weapons to gun down people from a nation the size of New Jersey. They also wear funny little hats and worship Baal,” Holman wrote on April 10, according to the complaint.

In another post on May 30, he allegedly wrote, “I will shoot so many Jews if I’m drafted with them. Please draft me Israel. Do it.”

A subsequent post stated, “We all know they are the problem. Instead of posting online, grab a firearm and go do something. I’m making plans, what are the rest of you doing?”

“Get a gun, wear black, go to your local synagogue,” he allegedly wrote on June 10.

During an FBI interview on Aug. 5, Holman admitted to making the posts, per the filing. Agents who searched his residence seized a firearm, a notebook containing what investigators described as possible end-of-life plans and a cellphone displaying a swastika.

When asked whether he would have acted on the threats had he been near a synagogue while armed, Holman said, “I’m going to be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know, it’s just a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don’t know if I was in that situation I would actually go through with it or if I would just like think about it and drive off. I honestly don’t know.”

In a written statement included in the complaint, Holman said he became enraged after reading online posts about the Israel-Iran war.

“I would post very threatening tweets in response,” he wrote. “I would never act on those tweets or thoughts. I am very sorry for what I’ve posted. I would also post threats to government officials in response to how they handle things. I would never act on those tweets either.”

Holman also told investigators they would find threats against government officials, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on his cellphone, according to the affidavit.

The court ordered that Holman be detained and held in the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending a hearing set for Aug. 11.

In response to the arrest, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh thanked the FBI and warned that “this is not an isolated event.”

“It reflects a broader pattern of antisemitic rhetoric escalating into specific, targeted threats of violence against Jewish people and Jewish institutions, threats designed to intimidate and to make Jewish community members question their safety in the places where they gather and pray,” the Federation stated.

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