Michigan Man Charged With Anti-Semitic Death Threats Toward Hillel Employee
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Aiden Pink April 26, 2019
A 19-year-old in Michigan has been charged with a felony after allegedly sending anti-Semitic threats to a man who dated his ex-girlfriend, as well as to the man’s employer, the Hillel Jewish student center at Michigan State University.
The threats began in late October, according to the Lansing State Journal, when Jack Hurlbut allegedly told the Hillel employee via Facebook message that he would “smoke him” if he ever saw him.
Subsequents threats allegedly continued from his account and several others created by him, including messages saying “I think Alolf [sic] Hitler greatly benefited our gene pool by cleaning it up a bit” and “I’ll find you at the Jewish center. I’m coming for you.”
Hurlbut also allegedly repeatedly called the Lester and Jewell Morris Hillel Jewish Student Center, the Hillel at MSU, and threatened the man’s coworkers and other students. The first message to Hillel came the day before the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and continued for several weeks, until the victim went to the police on November 15.
“My coworkers were literally scared for their lives,” the Hillel employee wrote in the personal protection order he filed against Hurlbut.
East Lansing detective Ryan Kuhn testified in December that Hurlbut had admitted to him that he sent the threatning messages, the Journal reported. Hurlbut’s attorney and MSU Hillel director Cindy Hughey declined to comment to the journal.
Hurlbut has been charged with ethnic intimidation, a felony, and malicious use of telecommunications services. He could face up to two years in prison.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor for the Forward. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
