Overview
- Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, is charged under 18 U.S.C. 844(i) and appeared in federal court from a hospital bed, with a potential sentence of five to 20 years if convicted.
- An FBI affidavit says Pittman admitted targeting the Jackson temple for its “Jewish ties,” calling it a “synagogue of Satan,” with surveillance video, a burned phone, a hand torch, texts, and location data cited as evidence.
- State prosecutors have filed a first-degree arson charge with a hate-crime enhancement that has been sent to a Hinds County grand jury, with the investigation ongoing.
- The blaze destroyed Beth Israel’s library and administrative offices, killed at least two Torahs, and spared a Holocaust-surviving scroll kept behind glass; no injuries were reported.
- Beth Israel is holding services in donated church spaces, other congregations have offered Torahs, and synagogues elsewhere in Mississippi report stepped-up security while rebuilding and fundraising begin.