Colorado man arrested after plots of synagogue attack are exposed

A Colorado man — known to be white supremacist and neo-Nazi — has been arrested for plotting to blow up a local synagogue.

Richard Holzer was taken into custody by the FBI before he committed what the law enforcement agency believes was going to be a major hate crime at Temple Emmanuel in Pueblo, Colo. where he lives. According to the FBI, Holzer indicated he would use arsenic and pipe bombs in an attack on the synagogue.

The FBI said Holzer made several anti-Semitic statements and expressed hatred of Jews, referring to the synagogue as a “cancer” to the community.

“(He) indicated that he wanted to do something that would let Jewish people in the Pueblo community know that they are not welcome and that — according to him, they should leave or they will die,” Jason Dunn, United States Attorney for the District of Colorado, said.

FBI investigators said that Holzer used his Facebook accounts “to promote white supremacy ideology and acts of violence.”

“I wish the holocaust really did happen… they need to die,” he wrote in one post.

Since the arrest, synagogue leaders in Pueblo said they plan to add surveillance cameras to enhance security which was already tightened after last year’s deadly Pittsburgh synagogue attack.

Also in Colorado, a group of men, posing as religious Jews, distributed and posted anti-Semitic propaganda at a Boulder mall over the weekend. The fliers denied the Holocaust and other posters contained anti-Semitic tropes about Jews running academia and other industries.

Meanwhile, in New York the same weekend, several Jewish men and boys were chased in Brooklyn on Shabbat eve in a spree of attacks. According to the Yeshiva World News, in each incident, several men would jump out of a car, chase their victims and beat some of them. The number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City has risen significantly so far this year.