Law enforcement in Jackson, Mississippi, has arrested a suspect who has confessed to setting an early-morning fire that devastated the Beth Israel Congregation – the state’s largest Jewish house of worship.
The blaze, which has since been ruled as an official arson by investigators, has reportedly destroyed the synagogue’s library and administrative offices, burned two Torah scrolls, and damaged five others – sparing a Holocaust era-surviving Torah which was housed in a separate protective case.
The fire started raging shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, January 10, during Shabbat – the Jewish day of rest.
Jackson Fire Department (JFD) responders arrived to find flames pouring from locked doors and windows, with no injuries reported among congregants or firefighters, per an update from Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
The local fire department has since revealed that arson investigators quickly tracked down the suspect, a 19-year-old man named Stephen Spencer Pittman from Wisconsin, to a local hospital where he was apparently treated for non-life-threatening burns.
Pittman reportedly admitted the act to his father, per Mississippi Today News, who then alerted the FBI and shared GPS evidence placing his son at the synagogue early Saturday morning.
According to another FBI affidavit, Pittman apparently laughed while recounting what he had done, telling his father he had “finally got them” and that he had “hit a home run.”
“There was a suspect possibly burned at a local hospital,” Felton told NPR. “They did go to the hospital, at which point they interviewed the person of interest, and that person did confess to having involvement in the fire.”
Pittman now faces arson accusations on a federal level, with investigators allegedly considering additional criminal charges as they also look into potential hate crime motivations.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn condemned the attack in a statement released Sunday to the Jackson Advocate Online, saying: “Acts of anti-semitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship.”
“Targeting people because of their faith, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is morally wrong, un-American, and completely incompatible with the values of this city,” Horhn added.
Horhn himself was only a young boy during a past attack on the very same synagogue: a Ku Klux Klan-led bombing of the synagogue in 1967, which allegedly targeted Rabbi Perry Nussbaum for his civil rights advocacy movement.
Congregation President Zach Shemper, while overlooking the charred ruins, spoke about his gratitude for community support after detailing the arson investigation.
“We have already had outreach from other houses of worship in the Jackson area and greatly appreciate their support in this very difficult time,” Shemper said in a separate statement shared to MTN.
Services at Beth Israel have been suspended indefinitely since the blaze, but leaders have publicly vowed to rebuild the synagogue, much like after the 1967 incident that damaged similar areas of the building.
Congregant David Edelstein, who arrived for Saturday services unaware of the blaze, used his own drone to confirm that lightning from thunderstorms earlier in the day was not a cause of the fire, per Newseek.
During a search of the wreckage, he discovered a book that he claims was miraculously open to the Shema prayer: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Beth-Israel is now accepting donations via their own website, writing in a Facebook post, “We thank you deeply for your love and support.”
For Texans, the recent arson attack hits pretty close to home, especially when looking back at the January 15, 2022, standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, where a gunman held four hostages for 11 hours before being freed after the suspect was shot by SWAT, as previously reported by DX. None of the hostages was reportedly injured.