Beverly Geiger Bonnheim had watched her historic synagogue burn before, when she was 17 and the Ku Klux Klan bombed Beth Israel Congregation in 1967. This weekend, at 75, she returned to the same Jackson building as flames damaged it again just after 3 a.m. Saturday, bringing back both the memory of the earlier attack and the fear it planted.
“It was horrifying and disbelieving to see it again,” Geiger Bonnheim said. She said the question that followed was whether “history change[s],” as the fire burned through the 165-year-old congregation’s library and administrative offices.
After the arson, two Torah scrolls were destroyed and five others were being assessed for smoke damage, according to the Associated Press report. Geiger Bonnheim, who now lives in Dallas, remained connected to the congregation and said she is still an active member. She is also on the board of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, a nonprofit based out of the Beth Israel Congregation building.
The case centers on Stephen Pittman, 19, whom an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi described as confessing to lighting a fire inside the building. The affidavit said he referred to it as “the synagogue of Satan.” Pittman has been charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive, and he also faced a similar state charge of first-degree arson of a place of worship.
As of Monday, neither of the two public defenders representing Pittman had addressed the charges, and they had not returned the AP’s requests for comment, according to the report. Congregants and religious leaders focused instead on rebuilding and worship plans already underway.
Zach Shemper, the congregation’s president, vowed to rebuild, saying nearby churches have offered to let the congregation worship inside and that other synagogues have offered new Torahs. He said the fire has not interrupted the congregation’s programs and that members plan to gather Friday night to observe Shabbat. “We’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere,” Shemper said.
Benjamin Russell, Beth Israel’s spiritual leader and a student preparing to become a rabbi, said recovering from hardship is part of the Jewish psyche. He said the Torah contains examples of people being reborn through hardship, and he quoted that idea directly: “From the ashes, something beautiful will rise.”
Geiger Bonnheim said she did not find the arson surprising, adding that Jewish people have been persecuted for more than 3,000 years. She said the 1967 bombing was the work of bigotry and hatred faced by her generation and that the community now has to confront similar issues again. “There’s a Hebrew saying, ‘l’dor v’dor,’ from generation to generation,” she said, linking the earlier Klan bombing to what she described as the next generation’s responsibility.
Abram Orlansky, a congregant and former Beth Israel president, said the fire brought up fear for his children and the role the synagogue plays in their lives. “We told our kids the truth — that someone did this on purpose, and it’s because they don’t like the Jewish people,” Orlansky said, while also describing the outreach that followed. He said seeing support from the Jackson community and from the worldwide Jewish community had been heartening, and that his children were excited to show the world “that our community isn’t going anywhere.”