Religious leaders and civil rights activists condemned what authorities said Sunday was an act of arson that heavily damaged a historic Mississippi synagogue that had been bombed decades ago for its congregation's role in the civil rights movement. One person was arrested for investigation of arson, authorities said.
The fire ripped through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, authorities said. No congregants or firefighters were injured in the blaze. Firefighters arrived to find flames billowing out of windows and all doors to the synagogue locked, the chief of investigations for the Jackson Fire Department, Charles D. Felton Jr., said in a statement.
Local and federal officials, including from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arrested a person for investigation of arson at a hospital where that person had non-life threatening burns, Felton said. The name of the suspect wasn't being immediately released, Felton said late Sunday.
A spokesperson for the Jackson FBI said they were “working with law enforcement partners on this investigation.”
Photos showed the charred remains of an administrative office and synagogue library, where several Torahs were destroyed or damaged.
Local and national officials, religious figures and activists condemned the fire at the 160-year-old synagogue, the largest in Mississippi and the only one in Jackson.
It was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 — a response to the congregation’s role in civil rights activities, according to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which also houses its office in the building. The home of the synagogue’s rabbi, an outspoken critic of racial segregation, was also bombed two months later by the same group.
“That history reminds us that attacks on houses of worship, whatever their cause, strike at the heart of our shared moral life,” CJ Rhodes, a prominent Black Baptist pastor in Jackson, said in a Facebook post.
The arson underscores the importance of interfaith solidarity in standing up to hate and bigotry, said Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based organization focused on combating antisemitism.
“It was an assault on the heart of Jewish life in the South, and on a legacy shaped in partnership with the Black community through the long, unfinished struggle for civil rights,” Berk said in a statement. “This attack is not only an act of antisemitism, it is an assault on that legacy, testing whether the lessons of that era still hold.”
“That it has been attacked again, amid a surge of antisemitic incidents across the US, is a stark reminder: antisemitic violence is escalating, and it demands total condemnation and swift action from everyone,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of The Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.
The Beth Israel congregation is assessing damage but will continue its regular worship programs and services for Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath, likely at one of the local churches that reached out, said Michele Schipper, CEO of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and a past president of the congregation.
"We are a resilient people," said Beth Israel Congregation President Zach Shemper. “With support from our community, we will rebuild.”
One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, Schipper said. Five Torahs inside the sanctuary are 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 floors, walls and ceiling of the sanctuary were covered in soot, and the synagogue will have to replace upholstery and carpeting.
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