FBI: Suspect in Mississippi synagogue fire targeted institution because of its ‘Jewish ties’

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The FBI says that a suspect in the arson fire at a Mississippi synagogue admitted to targeting the institution because of its “Jewish ties.”

Stephen Spencer Pittman was charged Monday with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive. In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday, the FBI said the suspect confessed to lighting a fire inside the building “due to the building’s Jewish ties.”

The weekend fire ripped through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday. No congregants or firefighters were injured in the blaze. Security camera footage released Monday by the synagogue showed a masked and hooded person using a gas can to pour a liquid on the floor and a couch in the building’s lobby.

In an interview with law officers, Pittman referred to the synagogue as the “synagogue of Satan,” according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi.

During that interview with representatives of the Jackson Fire Department and Hinds County Sheriff’s Office, Pittman “admitted to starting a fire inside the Beth Israel Congregation/ISJL building,” the affidavit states.

During his interview with investigators, Pittman said he stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gas used in the fire. He also took the license plate off of his vehicle at the gas station. He then used an ax to break out a window of the building, poured gas inside and used a torch lighter to start the fire, the affidavit states.

The FBI later recovered a burned cell phone believed to be Pittman’s, and recovered a hand torch a member of the congregation found and turned over to authorities

With just a few hundred people in the community, it was never particularly easy being Jewish in Mississippi’s capital city, but members of Beth Israel took a special pride in keeping their traditions alive in the heart of the Deep South.

But the fire badly damaged the historic synagogue’s library and administrative offices, making it much harder and harkened back to an era more than a half-century earlier when the Ku Klux Klan bombed the synagogue because of its rabbi’s support for civil rights.

One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, according to the congregation. Five Torahs — the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — located inside the sanctuary were being assessed for smoke damage. Two Torahs inside the library, where the most severe damage was done, were destroyed, according to a synagogue representative.

The suspect’s father contacted the FBI and said that his son confessed to setting the building on fire, the affidavit states. Data on the suspect’s cell phone corroborated that information, the agent wrote.

Yellow police tape on Monday blocked off the entrances to the synagogue building, which was surrounded by broken glass and soot. Bouquets of flowers were laid on the ground at the building’s entrance — including one with a note that said, “I’m so very sorry.”

Security camera footage released Monday by the synagogue showed a masked and hooded person using a gas can to pour a liquid on the floor and a couch in the building’s lobby.

The congregation’s president, Zach Shemper, vowed to rebuild the synagogue and said several churches had offered their spaces for worship during the rebuilding process.

“As Jackson’s only synagogue, Beth Israel is a beloved institution, and it is the fellowship of our neighbors and extended community that will see us through,” Shemper said.

With the exception of the cemetery, every aspect of Jewish life in Jackson was under Beth Israel’s roof. The midcentury modern building not only housed the congregation but also the Jewish Federation, a nonprofit provider of social services and philanthropy that is the hub of Jewish institutional life in most U.S. cities. The building also was home to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which provides resources to Jewish communities in 13 southern states. A Holocaust memorial was outdoors behind the synagogue building.

Because Jewish children throughout the South have attended summer camp for decades in Utica, Mississippi, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Jackson, many retain a fond connection to the state and its Jewish community.

“Jackson is the capital city, and that synagogue is the capital synagogue in Mississippi,” said Rabbi Gary Zola, a historian of American Jewry who taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. “I would call it the flagship, though when we talk about places like New York and Los Angeles, it probably seems like Hicksville.”

Beth Israel as a congregation was founded in 1860 and acquired its first property where it built Mississippi’s first synagogue after the Civil War. In 1967, the synagogue moved to its current location where it was bombed by local Ku Klux Klan members not long after relocating. Two months after that, the home of the synagogue’s leader, Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, was bombed because of his outspoken opposition to segregation and racism.

At a time when opposition to racial segregation could be dangerous in the Deep South, many Beth Israel congregants hoped the rabbi would just stay quiet, but Nussbaum was unshakable in believing he was doing the right thing by supporting civil rights, Zola said.

“He had this strong, strong sense of justice,” Zola said.