The 19-year-old who admitted to setting Mississippi’s oldest synagogue is facing new federal charges.
On Tuesday, Stephen Spencer Pittman was charged by superseding indictment with civil rights and arson offenses related to the burning of the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson. He had previously just been charged with arson by the Justice Department, and is currently facing an additional charge of first-degree arson with a hate crime enhancement at the state level.
Pittman, who attended St. Joseph Catholic School in Madison before going on to play baseball at Coahoma Community College, confessed to breaking into Beth Israel, dousing areas of the synagogue with gasoline, and setting fire to the place of worship, the FBI has asserted. The crime was captured on video.
The defendant’s father turned him in. According to investigators, he’s the one who gave them a picture showing his son had texted him from the crime scene. He told agents that his son confessed to setting the building on fire.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate attacks on houses of worship,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “This superseding indictment shows that we will investigate and we will prosecute such vicious attacks that strike at the core of our country’s long tradition of religious liberty.”
While no congregants of Beth Israel were physically injured during the blaze, the emotional toll has been a combination of discouragement and encouragement, according to synagogue officials. Congregation President Zach Shemper has vowed to rebuild the synagogue as several area churches have opened their doors to Beth Israel in the meantime.
Churches that have made their campuses available or offered resources to the people of Beth Israel include Northminster Baptist Church, St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church, and Fondren Church, among others.
“We are a resilient people,” Shemper said the day of the blaze. “With support from our community, we will rebuild.”
Beth Israel Congregation was established in Jackson in 1860 and is the city’s lone synagogue. The place of worship also hosts the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. The center provides Jewish religious school programs and rabbinical services to more than 70 congregations across Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
No stranger to attacks and threats, Beth Israel was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 due to its role in the Civil Rights Movement. In December 2023, Beth Israel was one of hundreds of synagogues across the U.S. to be subject to bomb threats, elevating concerns of a growing sentiment of antisemitism across the nation.
The FBI, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Jackson Police Department, and Jackson Fire Department are investigating the case against Pittman. Assistant United States Attorney Matt Allen, Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Buckner, and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Taylor Payne lead the prosecution.