Mississippi officials on Saturday arrested a suspect and charged them with arson in a fire that charred a prominent Jackson synagogue, the city’s only Jewish house of worship and the target of a Ku Klux Klan bombing decades ago when the congregation was pushing for racial integration.
The blaze at Beth Israel Congregation began around 3 a.m. Saturday, destroying Torah scrolls and burning significant parts of the building, before firefighters extinguished it, according to Jackson Fire Department Chief Charles Felton. The synagogue was closed at the time, and no one was injured in the fire.
Officials have not identified the suspect or disclosed a motive. Felton said authorities are certain it was an act of arson because fire investigators found that the fire could not have been started “without human involvement.”
The suspect is facing an arson charge in Mississippi, and the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which are also probing the incident, are considering opening a federal case, Felton told The Washington Post.
Given the damage to the synagogue, the congregation will not be able to hold services there “for an extended time period,” Felton said.
Beth Israel’s congregation president, Zach Shemper, said the congregation was still assessing the damage to the building but would continue services elsewhere in the meantime.
“We are a resilient people,” Shemper said in a statement Sunday. “With the support from community, we will rebuild.”
Photos of the damage shared with local media drew swift and sharp condemnations from officials and Jewish organizations across the country. Jackson Mayor John Horhn (D) said the city would work with authorities to “hold accountable anyone who tried to spread fear and hate here.”
“Targeting people because of their faith, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is morally wrong, and un-American, and completely incompatible with the values of this city,” he said.
Before dawn on Saturday, the flames began in the synagogue’s library. Firefighters wrangled the fire for two hours before bringing it “completely under control,” according to Felton. In its wake, the blaze left smoke damage across the temple, including in its sanctuary, Felton said.
FBI Jackson Division spokeswoman Marshay Lawson declined to comment on the investigation, which she said is still in its early stages and being coordinated with the U.S. attorney’s office. She said the FBI will “most likely” provide an update Monday.
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which has operated out of Beth Israel for five years, said no staff would work from the building for the time being.
Founded in 1860, Beth Israel Congregation built the first synagogue in Mississippi and its temple today stands as the state’s largest synagogue. The congregation was a leading voice in advancing civil rights, a role that made the synagogue and its rabbi targets of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.
In September 1967, Klan members bombed the temple. Two months after that, they bombed the home of its rabbi, Perry Nussbaum, who at the time had implored congregants and the city’s residents to advocate for integration, according to the synagogue’s website. He and his wife were home during the bombing, but they were not hurt.
In an online recounting of its history, the congregation wrote that the bombings moved White people in Jackson to join the movement to desegregate the city, realizing that their “resistance to integration had gone too far.”
As Beth Israel’s flock figures out how to hold worship services without their building, Shemper said other churches had offered their space for the congregation to use.
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