Stephen Spencer Pittman had a history of posting antisemitic messages online. As he carried out the attack, he sent his father a series of texts: “There’s a furnace in the back,” with a photo. “Btw my plate is off.” “Hoodie is on.” “And they have the best cameras.”
“We are devastated but ready to rebuild.”
His father pleaded with him to come home. According to a court filing, when he at last returned, the teen said he “finally got them,” with a chuckle. He later readily confessed to the FBI, saying that he had set fire to the synagogue because of its “Jewish ties,” calling the building a “synagogue of Satan.”
The young man has been charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire, in a blaze that ruined two of the synagogue’s Torahs along with its library and offices. Images released to the press show charred books and furniture, walls soiled by smoke and ash, and piles of burned debris.
Founded in 1860, Beth Israel is the largest temple in the state, and has served Jackson’s Jewish community for 165 years, accommodating both Conservative and Reform congregants. It was also the site of a 1967 Ku Klux Klan bombing in retaliation for its rabbi’s outspoken support of civil rights.
The city’s mayor, John Horhn, now 70, was 12 years old at the time. He recalled how minority communities came together to stand for tolerance, justice and unity.
“The Jewish community and the African-American community in those days formed alliances and partnerships to fight racism, to fight injustice, to fight mistreatment of citizens for whatever reason,” he said.
The fire caused such severe damage that Beth Israel cannot host worship services for the foreseeable future, according to Zach Shemper, president of the congregation. “We are devastated but ready to rebuild,” he said.
Following the fire, congregants and synagogue leaders walked through the synagogue, assessing the damage and recovering what religious artifacts they could.
Inside, one parishioner, David Edelstein, says he noticed a book lying face up amid the debris. He stepped closer.
Everything around it was burnt matter or ashes but it was unscathed in an otherwise charred and blackened world.
A prayer book, it was opened to the foundational prayer of Judaism, recited multiple times daily and uttered by every pious Jew on his deathbed: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
