(RNS) — The fire that ripped through Jackson, Mississippi’s only synagogue appears to be an act of arson on the part of a man who admitted to targeting the institution because of its “Jewish ties,” according to the FBI.
On Monday (Jan. 12), Stephen Spencer Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive, The Associated Press reported. Pittman was found at a local hospital where he had non-life threatening burns and was arrested shortly thereafter.
Pittman confessed to setting a fire at Beth Israel Congregation around 3 a.m. on Saturday (Jan. 10), in what appears to be part of a growing number of antisemitic incidents worldwide.
No synagogue members were injured, and the sanctuary mostly escaped harm. But two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and the synagogue’s library and offices suffered extensive damage. Five other Torah scrolls were damaged. The historic building also houses the offices of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish life in the region.
This is the second arson at the Reform synagogue founded in 1860 by German Jewish immigrants and is Mississippi’s largest Jewish temple. In 1967, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the synagogue because its leaders advocated for racial integration.
The synagogue is currently led by a student rabbi; its previous full-time rabbi left in 2024. Mississippi’s Jewish population has been declining for years and is estimated at less than 2,000 people.
“We have had tremendous support from the community and appreciate the outpouring of love as we rebuild after the fire,” the synagogue’s webpage stated on Monday and linked to a Beth Israel Rebuilding Fund.
Pittman referred to the synagogue as the “synagogue of Satan,” according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi, The Associated Press reported. The suspect’s father contacted the FBI and said that his son confessed to setting the building on fire, the affidavit states.
In a statement, the congregation’s president, Zach Shemper, said “several churches have extended kind offers” for synagogue members to use their space in the interim.
Rabbi Debra Kassoff, a member of Beth Israel, said a previously planned adult bat mitzvah will go on this coming Saturday at a location to be determined. (Adult bat or bar mitzvahs are often offered to people who didn’t undergo the coming of age ritual at age 12 or 13, but want to reaffirm their Jewish commitments.) Kassoff is also part-time rabbi of Temple B’nai Israel in Hattiesburg, which has donated its spare Torah scroll for the occasion; another congregation has donated prayer books.
“We’re in the midst of the devastation, but the support of the Jewish community near and far is a bright spot,” Kassoff said.
Jewish communities around the world have suffered a rash of violent attacks in the past year. In Sydney, Australia, 15 people were killed in a shooting during a public menorah lighting on Bondi Beach on the first day of Hanukkah last month. In May, two Embassy of Israel staff members were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. In Boulder, Colorado, a man attacked a pro-Israel demonstration with a makeshift flamethrower in June; one woman later died from her injuries. And during Passover, the Pennsylvania governor’s residence was set on fire while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family slept inside.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
