A ‘deliberate attack on Jews’: Community condemns arson attack on Mississippi synagogue |
Local community leaders and Jewish organizations expressed outrage over the arson that gutted Mississippi’s largest synagogue early Saturday morning, calling it a “deliberate” attack on the Jewish community.
Security camera footage from inside the synagogue showed a masked suspect splashing a liquid along the wall and couch of the synagogue lobby before the blaze erupted, according to local media reports.
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.
The fire destroyed portions of the building, including two Torah scrolls, and rendered the synagogue unusable for the foreseeable future.
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 was found to have 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.”
Although authorities had not released details on the suspect or the motive, Jewish officials said it was clearly a hate crime.
The attack “wasn’t random vandalism — it was a deliberate, targeted attack on the Jewish community,” said Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt following the attack. “An attack on any synagogue is an attack on all Jews. We will not be silent.”
Arson is considered a felony in Mississippi, and if investigators ultimately label the attack a hate crime, the suspect could face harsher penalties, as well as possible federal charges.
The synagogue’s library and administrative offices were destroyed in the fire, as were two Torah scrolls stored in the library. The main sanctuary was not........