Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

January 13, 2026

Anti-Semitism and Jewish Resilience in Jackson, Mississippi

“Devastated but ready to rebuild.”

Yesterday, the FBI released the name of the person who burned down the Beth Israel synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi on Saturday. The nineteen-year-old texted his father photos of the crime while he was committing it, and explained to police that he set the building (which he called the “synagogue of Satan”) alight because of its “Jewish ties.” Noting that the synagogue has been deemed unusable, and that multiple Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, the editors of the New York Sun write: 

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