The FBI said in a court filing Monday that a suspect in an arson fire at a historic Mississippi synagogue confessed to starting it because of its “Jewish ties” and called the building a “synagogue of Satan.”
Stephen Spencer Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire. The blaze burned early Saturday morning at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, which was closed at the time. Shortly after, authorities said the fire was an act of arson.
There were no reported injuries, officials said, but the suspect was recovering from burns at a hospital, where he was arrested Saturday. Pittman did not have an attorney listed in court records as of Monday afternoon.
Beth Israel, the largest Jewish temple in the state, was the target of bombings during the civil rights era because its rabbi advocated integration. The congregation shares its current building with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, a nonprofit that serves Jewish communities nationwide, the FBI noted in the affidavit it filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi.
The fire started around 3 a.m. Saturday in Beth Israel’s library. It destroyed sacred Torahs and caused smoke damage throughout the building, Jackson’s chief fire investigator, Charles Felton, told The Washington Post on Sunday.
Images showed charred books and furniture, walls soiled by smoke and ash, and piles of burned debris. Worship services cannot be held at the synagogue for the time being, Beth Israel Congregation President Zach Shemper said.
“We are devastated but ready to rebuild,” Shemper said of the congregation, which is more than 160 years old, in a statement Sunday.
Attacks against the Jewish community have been on the rise. Over the past year alone, the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was set on fire by a man who allegedly blamed him for violence against Palestinians; two Israeli Embassy employees were fatally shot at a Jewish museum in D.C.; and a man threw molotov cocktails at a gathering in Colorado to support Israeli hostages in Gaza.
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