Spanish
Miami.- Authorities arrested the suspect in the arson this Sunday, in a possible antisemitic act, of the largest synagogue in Jackson, capital of Mississippi, a temple known in the southern United States for having suffered an attack by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 because its rabbi supported civil rights.
The fire occurred at 3:00 local time (9:00 GMT) at the Beth Israel temple, where firefighters extinguished the fire moments later, but the flames destroyed parts of the synagogue, where the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Joint Terrorism Task Force arrived.
"Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole, and will be treated as acts of terror against the safety of residents and their freedom of worship," said Mayor John Horhn in a statement.
The mayor reported the arrest of the alleged perpetrator, whom the police found in a local hospital while attending to his burns.
For now, the authorities have not detailed the identity or motive of the attacker, who will be taken into FBI custody, so it is still unknown whether they will investigate the incident as a hate crime or an act of terrorism, although they have already determined that it was a "premeditated fire".
You can read: Five human heads found hanging on a beach in Ecuador
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) considered that "this act of hate is just the most recent symptom of a dangerous rise in antisemitism faced by Jewish communities across the country and the world." "Although no one was injured, the synagogue was extensively damaged, several Torah scrolls were destroyed, and the congregation, the only synagogue in Jackson, was forced to cancel services indefinitely," lamented the AJC in a statement. Additionally, federal Congressman Ritchie Torres highlighted the historical importance of the synagogue, citing that the Ku Klux Klan bombed it in 1967 in a "campaign of terror" against Rabbi Perry Nussbaum for being allied with the Civil Rights Movement. A report from the FBI reported last August an annual growth of 5.8% in antisemitic attacks in the United States in 2024, in addition to revealing that Jews are the target of 70% of hate attacks motivated by religion, according to the AJC.
