Religion and Public Safety

Federal authorities say Stephen Spencer Pittman set fire to Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi — the state’s oldest and only synagogue — after buying gasoline, removing his license plate, breaking a window, pouring fuel inside and igniting it with a torch lighter, suffering burns; surveillance footage, phone-location data, a burned cell phone and a confession to his father who alerted the FBI led to his arrest. The FBI affidavit says Pittman admitted he targeted the building for its “Jewish ties” and called it the “synagogue of Satan”; the blaze destroyed the library, damaged or destroyed several Torah scrolls while a Holocaust‑survivor Torah behind glass was spared, and federal and local investigators are treating the incident as antisemitic arson.