Local community leaders and Jewish organizations expressed outrage over the arson that gutted Mississippi’s largest synagogue early Saturday morning, calling it a “deliberate” attack on the Jewish community.
Security camera footage from inside the synagogue showed a masked suspect splashing a liquid along the wall and couch of the synagogue lobby before the blaze erupted, according to local media reports.
The fire ripped through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, authorities said. No congregants or firefighters were injured in the blaze. Firefighters arrived to find flames billowing out of windows and all doors to the synagogue locked, the chief of investigations for the Jackson Fire Department, Charles D. Felton Jr., said in a statement.
The fire destroyed portions of the building, including two Torah scrolls, and rendered the synagogue unusable for the foreseeable future.
Local and federal officials, including from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arrested a person for investigation of arson at a hospital where that person was found to have non-life-threatening burns, Felton said. The name of the suspect wasn’t being immediately released, Felton said late Sunday.
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A spokesperson for the Jackson FBI said they were “working with law enforcement partners on this investigation.”
Fire damage to the Beth Israel Congregation, a synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, January 10, 2026. (Beth Israel Congregation)
Although authorities had not released details on the suspect or the motive, Jewish officials said it was clearly a hate crime.
The attack “wasn’t random vandalism — it was a deliberate, targeted attack on the Jewish community,” said Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt following the attack. “An attack on any synagogue is an attack on all Jews. We will not be silent.”
Arson is considered a felony in Mississippi, and if investigators ultimately label the attack a hate crime, the suspect could face harsher penalties, as well as possible federal charges.
The synagogue’s library and administrative offices were destroyed in the fire, as were two Torah scrolls stored in the library. The main sanctuary was not damaged, and the Torahs there were later removed for safekeeping. A Torah rescued from the Holocaust and stored in a glass case was not damaged.
The synagogue’s president, Zach Shemper, said in a statement that he hoped services would continue uninterrupted in a new location.
This photo provided by Beth Israel Congregation shows damage sustained during a fire, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at Beth Israel Congregation, in Jackson, Miss. (Beth Israel Congregation via AP)
“We are still assessing the damage to the building but will be continuing our worship services and other programs – locations to be determined,” he wrote. “Several churches have extended kind offers for Beth Israel congregants to use their buildings as a worship space as we rebuild.”
“We are a resilient people,” he added.
Local officials spoke out harshly against the crime.
“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 stated. “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.”
“Jackson stands with Beth Israel and the Jewish community, and we’ll do everything we can to support them and hold accountable anyone who tries to spread fear and hate here,” Horhn added.
Jackson, Mississippi – the city’s sole Synagogue, Beth Israel, was set on fire during Shabbat.
Police & FBI quickly arrested a suspect after the fire department ruled it arson.
Sadly, two Torahs were destroyed and five were damaged in the flames. This is the same Synagogue… pic.twitter.com/H7WBlBmKEv
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 11, 2026
Beth Israel Congregation is the only synagogue in the city of Jackson, and is believed to be the largest of the 14 or so synagogues in Mississippi. The Reform temple was established in 1860, the first one built in the southern US state that today is home to about 3,000 Jews.
The synagogue has previously faced other fires, as well as bomb threats, Shemper noted.
The synagogue was attacked in 1967 by members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan hate group who targeted its rabbi, Perry Nussbaum, for his work supporting civil rights.
Saturday’s attack “is an assault on that legacy, testing whether the lessons of that era still hold,” said Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization that uses the lessons of the Holocaust to fight hatred. “Jewish leaders and institutions did not stand by on the sidelines during the Civil Rights Movement. They marched, they spoke out, they stood with Black Americans against segregation, racism, and terror. Its memory is a warning not to let history slip from view.”
Civil rights leaders also condemned the arson.
“That history reminds us that attacks on houses of worship, whatever their cause, strike at the heart of our shared moral life,” CJ Rhodes, a prominent Black Baptist pastor in Jackson, said in a Facebook post.
As antisemitism has risen across the world since the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, in Israel, synagogues across the United States have increasingly faced bomb threats, vandalism, and other attacks. Recent years have seen several hate attacks on US synagogues, including the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which a gunman killed 11 people and wounded six others during Shabbat services.
A sign hangs from a fence outside the dormant landmark Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, Oct. 27, 2022, the fourth year since 11 people were killed in America’s deadliest antisemitic attack on Oct. 27, 2018 (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
“This weekend’s horrifying arson attack on the largest synagogue in Mississippi comes alongside a dramatic increase in hate and violence targeting Jewish communities and institutions around the globe, compounding our fear and vulnerability at this already challenging moment,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of The Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
“All of our leaders have an obligation to speak out, stand with the Jewish community in meaningful ways, and work to build strong coalitions and advance holistic approaches to counter hate, violence, and extremism wherever it exists,” she said.
Members of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, an organization serving Jewish communities in 13 southern states that had its base in Beth Israel’s building, thanked members of the community, including local Christian and interfaith groups, for reaching out with support.
FILE – This Nov. 2, 2018 photo shows an armed Hinds County Sheriff’s deputy outside of the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file)
“As Jackson’s only synagogue, Beth Israel is a beloved institution, and it is the fellowship of our neighbors and extended community that will see us through,” the organization wrote on its Facebook page.
The synagogue has put out a call for donations on its website, saying it has already received tremendous support from the community.
The Associated Press Contributed to this report