MD Man Admits To Threatening Philly Jewish Institution: Feds

PHILADELPHIA — A Maryland man admitted in federal court to threatening various Jewish or organizations and entities, including one in Philadelphia.

Federal authorities said Clift Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, Maryland, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs.

Seferlis was charged with those offenses by information last month, following his arrest in June on a criminal complaint and warrant in connection with such threats.

From at least March 2024 through at least June 2025, Seferlis mailed at least 40 letters and at least two postcards to more than 25 Jewish organizations and entities — including, but not limited to, synagogues, Jewish museums, Jewish community centers, Jewish schools, Jewish non-profit organizations, and a Jewish delicatessen — in various states.

In many of these letters and postcards, Seferlis threatened to destroy physical buildings and/or to injure individuals.

Specifically, Seferlis caused the U.S. Postal Service to deliver threatening communications to these institutions on various dates.

Authorities said he sent these communications to a Jewish institution in Philadelphia on April 4, 2024; July 29, 2024; Jan. 18, 2025; March 5, 2025; May 7, 2025; and May 9, 2025.

Other institutions targeted by Seferlis were in Washington, D.C.; Fairfax, Virginia; Gaithersburg, Maryland; Brookline, Massachusetts; Rockville, Maryland; Hagerstown, Maryland.

Each communication listed above contained a threat to injure the occupants of the receiving institution.

As court filings further detail, the defendant, by threat of force, intentionally obstructed and attempted to obstruct congregants and other attendees in the enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs, by threatening to harm the occupants of seven synagogues in D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, and Virginia.

Authorities said offenses against four of the institutions included the threatened use of a dangerous weapon, fire, or explosives.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16, 2026, and faces a maximum possible sentence of 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $5,650,000 fine.