Rachel Fink
January 13, 2026

The arsonist who confessed to burning a synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, told police he targeted the building because of its “Jewish ties.”

What an odd phrase, I thought. As if there was nothing more than a flimsy connection between the building he aimed to destroy and the living tradition contained within it.

For those of us raised in one of the small Jewish communities scattered across the South, nothing could be further from reality. I grew up in Louisiana, attending a Reform temple that was very similar to the one the arsonist called a “synagogue of Satan.” Baton Rouge, like Jackson, isn’t a small town, but both cities’ Jewish communities aren’t big enough for a day school or a kosher butcher. There’s no mikveh, and no chevra kadisha. Like so many other tiny communities scattered throughout the region, we did not have a Jewish Community Center, a Jewish bookstore or a Jewish museum.

And so our synagogues had to be everything to everyone, all at once.

We listened to the blast of the shofar in the same auditorium where we giggled late into the night at youth group lock-ins. We learned our first Hebrew words in the same classroom where we organized against KKK Grand Wizard David Duke’s political campaigns. We played fierce basketball games against each other in the same space where we came together to mourn the murder of Yitzhak Rabin.

The synagogue gave us our only access to kosher corned beef sandwiches and parent-approved teenage crushes; our only chance to sit in a sukkah or watch our fingernails glow in the flames of a Havdalah candle; our only opportunity to hear firsthand testimony from Holocaust survivors.

As Jewish minorities in the Bible Belt, some of us encountered open antisemitism; others simply learned what it meant to feel subtly, but perpetually, like an outsider. We were navigating a world where “Merry Christmas” was the default greeting and our sports teams recited the Lord’s Prayer before every game. Where we had to explain, again, why we missed school for Yom Kippur. The synagogue was where we went to feel completely at ease in our Jewish skin.

This is another part of what makes Southern Judaism so unique: just like their members, the synagogues themselves form an incredibly tight-knit network, so we have all spent time in one another’s sanctuaries and social halls. Reading coverage of the fire, I was bemused but not surprised to learn that the temple president is an old camp friend.

Decades ago, I celebrated friends’ bar and bat mitzvahs at Beth Israel and spent weekends there for North American Federation of Temple Youth conclaves. Now, my daughter is invited to those friends’ children’s rites of passage, sitting in the same pews where we once whispered loudly to each other behind tattered prayerbooks. For so many of us, Sunday’s fire was not just another horrific act of antisemitism. It was an attack on our very identity, an attempt to destroy the place where it has been formed, practiced and passed down for generations.

But Southern synagogues have survived violence and trauma before. And in the wake of this outrage, I take comfort in the fact that so often, when tragedy has stricken, we have been comforted and cared for not only by fellow Jews across the region but also by allies of other faiths.

When a hurricane rendered my childhood synagogue unusable, the Baptist church next door offered us their space for High Holiday services. Without being asked, they draped large cloths over the crosses in the sanctuary so that we would feel more comfortable. After the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the imam of the local mosque reached out to our rabbi to invite the congregation to an interfaith service of prayer and peace.

And so it has been in the aftermath of the Jackson fire. Within hours, faith leaders from across the city had reached out, offering the dislocated Jewish community their spaces for services. Outside the charred entrance, bouquets of flowers lay on the ground. Someone left a simple note: “I’m so very sorry.”

The arsonist may have aimed to sever the “Jewish ties” Jackson Jews have to their community’s physical home, to the holy books and sacred artifacts kept inside it. But he grossly underestimated so much: our long legacy of resilience; the unbreakable commitment we have to our faith and our values; and most importantly, the Jewish — and Southern — tradition of caring for one’s neighbor, of standing arm in arm to overcome injustice and hatred.

It’s the oldest synagogue in Mississippi, a thriving religious center that has served Jackson’s small but vibrant Jewish community for more than half a century.

Now, the Beth Israel synagogue is indefinitely closed, its historic interiors blackened with ash, after authorities say a man set a fire in the building’s library in the early hours of Saturday morning. The FBI says the suspect confessed to attacking the historic synagogue “due to (the) building’s Jewish ties.”

This is the second time the synagogue, which serves a congregation first established in Jackson in 1860, has been attacked with fire, according to its website. In 1967, the building was bombed by members of the Klu Klux Klan, who also bombed the rabbi’s home just months later. The building is also home to the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish communities in 13 southern states.

The 19-year-old suspect in Saturday’s attack was arrested at a hospital after his father called the FBI, saying his son confessed to him. Location data from a family tracking app helped corroborate his confession.

No one else is believed to have been inside the building and no injuries have been reported from the fire.

Stephen Spencer Pittman has been charged with “arson of property used in interstate commerce or used in an activity affecting interstate commerce,” according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

Pittman’s father contacted the FBI Saturday and told the agency his son had confessed to setting the building on fire, says the complaint.

The suspect was found at a local hospital with non-life-threatening burn injuries, Charles Felton, chief of investigations for the Jackson Fire Department’s Arson Investigation Division said.

A public defender was appointed to represent the 19-year-old at his first court appearance Monday afternoon. He appeared in federal court via video call from his hospital bed, with both his hands visibly bandaged, according to The Associated Press.

He said he had graduated high school and attended three semesters of college, reports the AP.

Pittman was released to the custody of the US Marshals Service and is scheduled to appear in court again on January 20, court records show.

If Pittman is convicted, he could face anywhere between five and 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice said in a news release. He acted alone, according to the DOJ.

CNN has reached out to Pittman’s public defender for comment.

CCTV footage shows someone started a fire inside the synagogue early Saturday morning, according to the criminal complaint. The document includes an image showing a “hooded individual” seen “walking in the interior of the building pouring contents from what appeared to be a gas container.”

Pittman told authorities he first stopped at a gas station to buy the gas he used to set the blaze, according to the complaint. At the gas station, he took the license plate off his vehicle, he told authorities.

Once he was at the building, he used an axe to break one of the synagogue’s windows, poured gas inside, and used a torch lighter to start a fire.

The Jackson Fire Department responded to the fire shortly after 3 a.m., where they found flames billowing from the windows. They requested fire investigators, who classified the blaze as “incendiary” based on “fire patterns and video surveillance.”

Investigators determined the fire started in the synagogue’s library, which sustained extensive damage, and continued toward the sanctuary, Felton said. There is smoke damage throughout the building, he said — so the congregation won’t be able to return for some time.

“The fire resulted in extensive damage to a significant portion of the building and rendered it inoperable for an indefinite period of time,” the criminal complaint says.

Pittman’s confessions, both to his father and to police, were corroborated by location data and physical evidence, the complaint says.

Data from Life360 — an app that provides real time GPS tracking — shows Pittman traveled from his home in Madison County, then stopped at a gas station in Ridgeland before proceeding to the synagogue, according to the complaint.

He texted his father a photo of the rear of the building, says the complaint. He wrote to his father: “There’s a furnace in the back”; “Btw my plate is off”; “Hoodie is on”; and “And they have the best cameras.” When his father pleaded with him to return home, Pittman replied, “I did my research,” says the complaint.

Later in the day, his father saw burns on Pittman’s ankles, hands and face, says the complaint. When he confronted his son, Pittman confessed to lighting a fire inside the building — and laughed as he did so, according to the complaint.

The FBI found a burned cell phone at the synagogue they believe is Pittman’s, as well as a hand torch.

In his interviews with the FBI and other investigators, Pittman called the building the “synagogue of Satan.” He “ultimately confessed to lighting a fire inside the building due to the building’s Jewish ties,” reads the criminal complaint.

He told his father that he “finally got them” when he confessed to the crime, says the complaint.

Zach Shemper, the congregation’s president, told CNN Monday law enforcement informed him the suspect in the arson attack posted antisemitic comments online. He said he hadn’t seen the posts himself.

Attorney General Pam Bondi characterized the attack as a “disgusting act of anti-Semitic violence” in the DOJ’s news release.

Jackson Mayor John Horhn condemned “acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred” in a statement after the attack.

The synagogue sustained significant damage during the attack, and it’s unclear when it’ll be able to reopen.

Photos show the building’s walls and floor covered with ash, with piles of damaged items heaped together.

Several Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, according to the American Jewish Committee, which condemned the incident as a “hateful act.”

Shemper said it could take at least a year to repair the building. In the meantime, multiple churches have offered their spaces to Beth Israel.

He said he felt both “sadness” and “anger” when he learned about the blaze.

“When something like this happens so catastrophic, your mind goes 100 miles an hour in every direction you can think of,” Shemper said. “For someone to hurt the safe space that we hold as a congregation, it’s just so detrimental and catastrophic.”

The synagogue served around 170 households as of 2021, according to the Institute for Southern Jewish Life. In addition to providing a home for Jackson’s Jewish community, the institution also served a role in the 20th century civil rights movement. Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, the congregation’s leader from the 1950s to the 70s, supported civil rights activists and helped found an interracial group of clergy to help rebuild Black churches attacked by white supremacists, according to the institute. It was his activism that eventually caught the attention of the KKK, whose members attacked the synagogue and his home, the institute said.

Michele Schipper, one of the congregation’s past presidents, said she was both emotionally distraught and committed to maintaining Jewish community in Jackson.

“I’m devastated,” she said. “We’re all devastated, but we are ready to rebuild, and with the support and outreach from our community, we will continue to be a vibrant Jewish community in Jackson, Mississippi.”

Correction:
An earlier version of this story misidentified the source of the confessions. It was the suspect, Stephen Spencer Pittman, according to court documents.

The suspect charged with setting a fire inside a historic Jackson, Mississippi, synagogue over the weekend admitted it was because of the building’s “Jewish ties,” according to an FBI criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday. 

Security footage showed the suspect, Stephen Spencer Pittman, inside Beth Israel Congregation around 3 a.m. on Saturday, pouring what appeared to be gasoline, according to the complaint. Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive. 

Authorities said Pittman’s father reached out to the FBI, saying his son confessed to starting the fire, which was later corroborated by map data from a location-sharing app Pittman had on his phone. Pittman also texted his father a photo of the back of the synagogue, writing, “There’s a furnace in the back,” the complaint alleges, noting that his father “pleaded for his son to return home.”

Hours later, Pittman’s father confronted his son after noticing burns on his ankles. Pittman “laughed as he told his father what he did and said he finally got them,” the complaint said. 

That evening, investigators at the Jackson Fire Department and Hinds County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Pittman, who admitted to starting the fire and called the building “the synagogue of Satan,” according to the complaint. He told investigators he stopped to purchase gasoline, removed his license plate and broke into the building through a window with an axe, using a torch lighter to start the fire after pouring gasoline.

On Sunday, Jackson Mayor John Horhn condemned “acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred,” which he said will be treated as acts of terror against residents.

“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,” he said in a statement posted to social media. 

Beth Israel, established over 160 years ago, is Jackson’s only synagogue and was the first synagogue in the state. 

In 1967, Beth Israel was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. Two months later, they bombed the home of the congregation’s rabbi as well, according to the Beth Israel website. The rabbi wasn’t home at the time and no one was hurt in the bombings. 

There are still congregants at the synagogue who were members during those bombings, according to a representative for Beth Israel.

Parts of the building are damaged by water, smoke and soot. The sanctuary, where worship services are held, needs restoration but is still standing. Five Torahs — the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — located inside the sanctuary were assessed for damage. Two Torahs inside the library were destroyed. One Torah rescued during the Holocaust and kept behind glass was undamaged. 

The attack on Beth Israel comes amid a nationwide spike in antisemitism. There’s been an 893% increase over the past decade in antisemitic incidents, according to the Anti-Defamation League. A 2024 audit by ADL recorded more than  9,000 incidents – it’s the highest number recorded since the organization began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1980.

“We are still assessing the damage to the building, but will be continuing our worship services and other programs – locations to be determined,” Zach Shemper, president of Beth Israel Congregation, said in a statement to CBS News, adding that several churches have offered their spaces for worship.

“We are a resilient people. With support from our community, we will rebuild,” Shemper said.

Patrick Torphy contributed to this report