California woman sentenced for hundreds of phone threats to Tree of Life synagogue

Melanie Harris, 59, began menacing the synagogue within months of the attack

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, closing a saga that began just months after 11 congregants were killed there in an antisemitic 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 next few years, she referenced victims of the October 2018 massacre, used antisemitic slurs and said, “I’ll cut your f—ing 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 the 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 Goldstein 15 voicemails.

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 her threats of violence towards the victims and their faith were clearly meant 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 attorneys for Harris did not respond to a request for comment.

Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine and VICE. He is based in Los Angeles and can be followed on Twitter @thislouis.

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