Federal arson charges were filed Monday against a man accused of setting fire to the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, home to the state’s oldest Jewish congregation and an institute that provides religious education and rabbinical services to Jewish communities across the Deep South.
The fire, set in the early morning hours of Jan. 10, caused extensive damage to the building shared by Beth Israel Congregation and the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, forcing the facility to close indefinitely.
Acting on a tip from the suspect’s father, authorities detained Stephen Spencer Pittman on the evening of the fire. According to an FBI affidavit, Pittman admitted to starting the blaze in a series of text messages sent to family members.
Under questioning, Pittman told investigators he set the fire because of the building’s Jewish identity, the affidavit said, quoting him as referring to the synagogue as the “synagogue of Satan.” Despite those statements, he was not charged with a federal hate crime.
Instead, the single-count criminal complaint charges Pittman with federal arson for deliberately setting fire to a building used in interstate commerce. Prosecutors cited the presence of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute, which serves Jewish congregations in more than a dozen Southern states, as the basis for federal jurisdiction. Prosecutors did not explain why hate crime charges were not included.
It was not immediately clear whether Pittman has legal representation.
Beth Israel Congregation was founded in 1860, the year Abraham Lincoln was elected president, making it the oldest Jewish congregation in Mississippi and the only synagogue in the state capital, according to its website. The building damaged in the fire has served as the congregation’s temple since 1967.
The synagogue was previously targeted that year in a Ku Klux Klan bombing at the home of its rabbi, who was active in the civil rights movement at the time, the congregation said.
Court records also cite surveillance footage showing a hooded individual inside the building, apparently pouring a flammable liquid from a large container before igniting the fire. Investigators said Pittman told them he purchased gasoline at a service station on his way to the synagogue.
The FBI said a cellphone linked to Pittman and a torch-style lighter believed to have been used to start the fire were recovered at the scene. Investigators also noted burns on the suspect’s body consistent with the evidence.
The synagogue arson comes amid a sharp rise in reported antisemitic incidents across the United States in recent years.