JACKSON, Miss. — A historic synagogue that had been firebombed during the Civil Rights Movement was hit by fire once again. One person was arrested in the latest incident.
Flames tore through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, just after 3 a.m. on Jan. 10, The Associated Press reported.
Video released on Monday by the synagogue showed a masked person wearing a hood using a gas can to pour something on the floor and couch in the temple’s lobby, the AP reported.
Firefighters battled flames coming out of the windows and the doors to the house of worship locked, the Jackson Fire Department chief of investigation, Charles Felton Jr., said in a statement.
The fire destroyed the synagogue’s offices and library, WAPT reported.
Local law enforcement, along with members of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, investigated the blaze. They eventually arrested a person in connection with the fire.
He was identified as Stephen Spencer Pittman, who told investigators he did it because of the building’s “Jewish ties,” the AP reported. He was charged on Monday with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive, the FBI said.
No one from the temple was hurt in the fire, according to the Clarion Ledger
Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement, “Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship,” ABC News reported.
“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 added.
The building had been targeted by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967, ABC News reported. A historical marker was added to the Mississippi Freedom Trail for the role that the synagogue played in the civil rights movement.
The synagogue’s leadership started the Committee of Concern in 1964 to raise money for African American churches that were burned by the Ku Klux Klan. The new Aagogue’s office and the rabbi’s home were burned six months after the congregation moved to its new temple.
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