The Media Line: Police Arrest Suspect in Mississippi Synagogue Arson Attack  

Police Arrest Suspect in Mississippi Synagogue Arson Attack  

By The Media Line Staff  

A suspect has been arrested in connection with the fire that tore through Jackson’s historic Beth Israel Congregation early Saturday morning, city officials confirmed Sunday.  

Authorities said the individual was taken into custody after Jackson Fire Department investigators received information from a local hospital that helped identify the suspect, according to CBS. The arrest followed a coordinated investigation involving the Jackson Police Department, the fire department’s arson unit, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Officials have not released the suspect’s name or the charges being prepared.  

The blaze was reported shortly after 3 a.m. at the only synagogue in Mississippi’s capital. Fire investigators determined the flames originated in the building’s library, destroying everything inside and sending soot and smoke throughout adjacent areas. Jackson Fire Department chief investigator Charles Felton said the library was a total loss, while the administrative offices and lobby sustained heavy damage. No one was injured.  

Cliff Shemper, speaking on behalf of the congregation, told NPR that two Torah scrolls were burned and five others were damaged. A Torah that had survived the Holocaust was spared because it was enclosed in a protective case. The synagogue’s Tree of Life plaque, commemorating milestones in congregants’ lives, was also destroyed.  

Shemper said surveillance footage captured a masked man in a hoodie pouring liquid inside the facility before the fire erupted. Felton added that the investigation quickly pointed to arson, prompting federal involvement.  

Mayor John Horhn called the incident an attack on the city’s values, saying acts rooted in hatred “will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship.” In a separate statement, he said targeting people on the basis of “faith, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation” is contrary to Jackson’s identity. Fire Chief RaSean Thomas added that the community “stands together” and that “hate has no home here.”  

Beth Israel has faced violence before. In the 1960s, its rabbi, Perry Nussbaum, helped rebuild Black churches bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1967, just months after the congregation moved into a new building, the synagogue and Nussbaum’s office were bombed in a Klan attack, according to a VisitMississippi statement.