Suspected arsonist targeted Mississippi synagogue for its ‘Jewish ties’, FBI says | Mississippi
The FBI said the suspect in the arson fire at a historic Mississippi synagogue admitted that he targeted the institution because of its “Jewish ties.”
Stephen Spencer Pittman was charged Monday with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by fire or explosives, the FBI said.
The weekend fire ripped through Congregation Beth Israel shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday morning. No congregation or firefighters were injured in the fire. Security camera footage released by the synagogue on Monday showed a masked and hooded man using a gas canister to pour liquid on the floor and a couch in the building’s lobby.
Pittman’s father allegedly later noticed burn marks on his son’s ankles, hands and face. She reportedly contacted the FBI and said her son had confessed to setting fire to the building.
Pittman had sent his father a photo of the back of the synagogue before the fire, with the message “There’s a bakery in the back.” His father begged his son to return home, but “Pittman responded by saying it was time to homerun and ‘I did my research,'” the affidavit said.
In his interview with investigators, Pittman said he stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to buy gas used in the fire. He also removed his vehicle’s license plate at the gas station. According to the FBI statement, the attacker broke the synagogue window with an axe, poured gas inside and used a torch lighter to start the fire.
The FBI later found a burned cell phone believed to belong to Pittman and seized a flashlight found by a congregant.
Local and national officials, religious figures and activists condemned the fire at the 160-year-old synagogue, Mississippi’s largest and the only synagogue in the state’s capital, Jackson.
This was a site Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 – a response to the congregation’s role in civil rights activities, according to the Institute for Southern Jewish Life, which also has its office in the building. The house of the synagogue rabbi, who openly criticized racial discrimination, was bombed by the same group two months later.
“This history reminds us that, regardless of the motive, attacks on houses of worship strike at the heart of our common moral life,” CJ Rhodes, a prominent Black Baptist pastor in Jackson, said on Facebook. to post.
Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based organization focused on combating antisemitism, said the arson underscores the importance of interfaith solidarity in standing against hatred and bigotry.
“This was an attack on the heart of Jewish life. [US] “On a legacy shaped by partnership in the South and with the Black community throughout the long, unfinished civil rights struggle,” Berk said in a statement. “This attack is not just an act of anti-Semitism, it is an attack on that legacy that tests whether the lessons of that period still apply.”
“The fact that it has been attacked again, at a time when anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise across the United States, is a stark reminder that anti-Semitic violence is escalating and demands blanket condemnation and swift action from everyone,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.
Congregation Beth Israel is assessing the damage but plans to continue regular worship schedules and services for Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath, possibly at one of the local churches that have reached out, said Michele Schipper, CEO of the Institute for Southern Jewish Life and a former president of the congregation.
“We are a resilient people,” said Zach Shemper, president of Congregation Beth Israel. “We will rebuild with the support of our community.”
A Holocaust survivor’s Torah was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, Schipper said. Five Torahs in the sanctuary are considered to be damaged by smoke. According to a synagogue representative, the two Torahs in the library where the heaviest damage occurred were destroyed.
The floor, walls and ceiling of the sanctuary were covered in soot, and the synagogue’s flooring and carpeting will need to be replaced.
