Yaniv Gola, 52, terrorized his victims with hundreds of calls and text messages over a year period in which he threatened to injure, kill, or rape them, their families, and employees.
An Orthodox Jewish man who told a federal judge he’d struggled with his faith was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison Tuesday for anonymously threatening Jewish business owners, with a relentless, yearlong campaign of antisemitic slurs.
Prosecutors said Yaniv Gola, 52, of Philadelphia, terrorized his eight victims with more than 600 phone calls and text messages between August 2022 and November 2023 in which he vowed to injure, kill or rape them, their family members, and their employees.
Several of them told U.S. District Judge Kai N. Scott during a hearing Tuesday that they abandoned their homes, sent their kids to stay with relatives, purchased firearms or spent thousands on self-defense classes as Gola’s unending barrage of threats continued.
“I’m going to kill all you Jews,” Gola told Rich Goldberg, owner of Safian & Rudolph Jewelers and president of the Philadelphia Jewelers’ Row District, during June 2023 call. “You Jews are all so greedy. You should all be shoved back into ovens.”