Parts of a historic Mississippi synagogue were burned to the ground early on Saturday morning in what authorities are calling an act of arson.
The synagogue, the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., was set ablaze around 3 a.m. on Saturday. No congregants were injured in the fire as the synagogue was closed at the time.
“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,” Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement.
Horhn also confirmed that, following an investigation by the FBI and a joint terrorism task force, officials have taken a suspect into custody. The name of the suspect has not been released by authorities.
Two of the synagogues’s Torahs were destroyed in the fire and five others were damaged. One Torah, which has survived the Holocaust and was preserved in a glass case, survived the blaze, according to temple leaders.
“A lot of times we hear things happening throughout the country in other parts, and we feel like this wouldn’t happen in our part,” Chief Fire Investigator Charles Felton said. “A lot of people are in disbelief that this would happen here in Jackson, Mississippi.”
At this time, authorities have disclosed neither the suspect’s motive nor the charges the suspect is facing.
Beth Israel Congregation is the only synagogue in the greater Jackson area as well as the largest in the state. The synagogue, which is 160 years old, was outspoken in its support for civil rights and was bombed in 1967 by the Ku Klux Klan.
“The fact that this historic synagogue, which was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 because of Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s civil rights advocacy, has once again been targeted is particularly painful and disturbing,” Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Lindsay Baach Friedmann said in a statement.
Officials are investigating the possibility that this fire was a hate crime, according to Felton.
“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,” Mayor Horhn said.