Arson suspect targeted Mississippi synagogue because it was Jewish, FBI says

JACKSON, Miss. — A 19-year-old man appeared in federal court Monday on charges he set fire to a historic Mississippi synagogue because it was a Jewish house of worship, the FBI said, after his own father alerted authorities upon discovering burn injuries on his son’s face, hands, and ankles.

The arrest of Stephen Pittman caps a weekend in which fire badly damaged the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson — a congregation that has anchored Jewish life in Mississippi for more than a century and that was previously bombed by the Ku Klux Klan after its rabbi spoke out against segregation.

The charges

Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive, the FBI said. He confessed to lighting a fire inside the building, which he referred to as “the synagogue of Satan,” according to an FBI affidavit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Mississippi.

Pittman appeared at his first federal court hearing via video conference from a hospital bed, with both hands visibly bandaged. He told the judge he was a high school graduate and had completed three semesters of college. When the judge read him his rights, Pittman said, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Prosecutors said he could face five to 20 years in prison if convicted. A public defender, Mike Scott, was appointed at the hearing. A preliminary and detention hearing is scheduled for Jan. 20.

Scott did not immediately return a request for comment, according to the Associated Press.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she instructed prosecutors to seek “severe penalties,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

How the fire was set

The fire ripped through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday. No congregants or firefighters were injured.

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

According to the FBI affidavit, Pittman stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gas used in the fire and removed his vehicle’s license plate there. He used an ax to break out a window, poured gas inside, and used a torch lighter to start the fire.

Pittman’s father contacted the FBI after observing burn marks on his son’s ankles, hands, and face. The father said his son had confessed to setting the building on fire. Pittman had texted his father a photo of the rear of the synagogue before the fire with the message, “There’s a furnace in the back.” His father had pleaded with his son to return home, but “Pittman replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ‘I did my research,’” the affidavit said.

The FBI later recovered a burned cellphone believed to be Pittman’s and took possession of a hand torch that a congregant had found.

Damage to the synagogue

The weekend fire badly damaged the 165-year-old synagogue’s library and administrative offices. Two Torahs — sacred scrolls containing the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — inside the library were destroyed. Five additional Torahs in the sanctuary were being assessed for smoke damage. One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, according to the congregation.

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

The congregation’s response

“This news puts a face and name to this tragedy, but does not change our resolve to proudly — even defiantly — continue Jewish life in Jackson in the face of hatred,” Beth Israel Congregation said in a statement.

Congregation president Zach Shemper, who attended Pittman’s court appearance Monday but did not comment afterward, has vowed to rebuild. Several churches have offered their spaces for worship during the rebuilding process, the Associated Press reported.

With several hundred people in the community, Beth Israel has long served as the hub of Jewish life in Mississippi’s capital. The midcentury modern building houses not only the congregation but also the Jewish Federation — a nonprofit provider of social services and philanthropy — and the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which provides resources to Jewish communities in 13 southern states. A Holocaust memorial stood outdoors behind the building.

“Jackson is the capital city, and that synagogue is the capital synagogue in Mississippi,” said Rabbi Gary Zola, a historian of American Jewry at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. “I would call it the flagship.”

A congregation with a history of surviving attacks

Beth Israel as a congregation was founded in 1860 and moved to its current location in 1967. Not long after relocating, the synagogue was bombed by local KKK members. Two months after that, the home of the synagogue’s rabbi at the time, Perry Nussbaum, was bombed because of his outspoken opposition to segregation and racism.

Nussbaum had continued speaking out on civil rights at a time when such positions carried personal risk in the Deep South. Many Beth Israel congregants had hoped he would stay quiet, but Zola said Nussbaum was unshakable.

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