Rabbi Matt Cutler was wrapping up a local TV interview last Thursday when a text from State Police came through: The man who had been posting antisemitic threats against him online was about to be arrested.
The notice was timely for Cutler, the leader of the Reform synagogue Congregation Gates of Heaven in Schenectady, New York, who was speaking with a local TV station about heightened anxieties in his community following the attack on a synagogue in Detroit that day.
“This one brought it closer to home, to say that what happened in Michigan could happen here,” Cutler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And we need to dig deep and be prepared, be vigilant, but not cower, to lean in with pride.”
Cutler had been made aware of the threats against him days earlier, which had been reported to New York State Police without his knowledge.
“This was a community effort, people notified me, I did not contact the State Police, other people did,” Cutler said. “You want to know how we stand up to vigilant antisemitism? When things are a threat, they said something, they called it in.”
The man accused of making the threats, Joshua J. Wood, 45, of Troy, New York, was arrested Thursday evening in Brunswick, New York, by police with the assistance of the New York State Police Counterterrorism Intelligence Unit and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
He was charged with second degree aggravated harassment, a hate-crime form of the charge, and arraigned in Schaghticoke Town Court before being released on his own recognizance.
The charges stemmed from a string of antisemitic threats allegedly made by Wood on social media targeting Cutler as well as other members of the local Jewish community. Some of the threats allegedly also targeted President Donald Trump.
“He better watch his rear end…watch his back…along with every other Jewish person,” read one comment allegedly posted by Wood beneath a local channel’s post of an interview with Cutler about security for Purim.
In other posts on Wood’s Facebook page, he allegedly wrote, “We need to stand with Iran and destroy all Jewish businesses, their homes, and religious sites in the United States of America in the best interest of society as a whole.”
“The only good Jew is a dead Jew!!!!,” another post read, according to a felony complaint filed in Troy City Court obtained by (JEWISH REVIEW).
The threats to Cutler come as Jewish institutions are on high alert amid the war with Iran, with the Secure Community Network, a national Jewish security nonprofit, warning last week that “we are in midst of the most elevated and complex threat environment” in modern history.
Cutler is not the first rabbi to face antisemitic threats in recent years. Last month, a North Carolina man was convicted and sentenced to prison for sending antisemitic threats to Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia, in February 2024. Last October, an Alabama man was charged with sending threatening messages to religious leaders across the South, including one rabbi who he told, “I want you to die.”
Following Wood’s arrest, Cutler sent an email to his congregation in which he expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support, while also urging them not to be defined by it.
“First and foremost, please know how deeply grateful my family and I are for the outpouring of calls, texts, and emails expressing your care and concern. We are okay—though I will admit, this has been frightening,” Cutler wrote. “We live with the reality of antisemitism, but we must not succumb to it. Instead, we are called to meet it with strength, dignity, and conviction—to hold our heads high with pride.”
Indeed, the messages of support had been staggering. Prior to speaking with (JEWISH REVIEW) on Wednesday afternoon, Cutler said he had received an unexpected call from a teenaged congregant who wanted to check in on him after seeing the news reports.
“In 36 years of being a rabbi, I don’t think I ever got a phone call from a 15-year-old kid to check on me,” Cutler said, adding that it was “one of the coolest phone calls of my rabbinic career.”
Despite the threats, Cutler said that he was prepared to meet the moment with resolve.
“I’m still in my office, so I’m still doing what I usually do. Did I move my car? Sure, I’m not parking in the rabbi’s reserved spot — I’m not an idiot, I don’t want someone to see,” Cutler said. “But I can be there, and we will be there for those in my community, as a spiritual leader, as a pastoral counselor, as a community organizer and as a rabbi.”
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