Beth Israel Congregation Rabbi Benjamin Russell and Congregation President Zach Shemper expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support during Thursday night’s All-City Call to Prayer in Jackson, days after an attacker set the congregation’s synagogue on fire.

Jackson Mayor John Horhn and the city’s Inter-Faith Task Force featuring religious leaders across faiths and denominations led a crowd of Jacksonians through prayers and a call to action – an event that had been planned before the fire but took on new urgency after it.

The event, held at Thalia Mara Hall, allotted time for prayers and special remarks for Beth Israel. Jackson’s only Jewish congregation was a primary focus of the service after the early Saturday fire that destroyed part of the synagogue, which is the state’s largest.

Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, of Madison is facing federal and state arson charges in the attack.

“I wish I could say that this moment of our coming together in mourning and solidarity and hope and in friendship was unique, but unfortunately we have been here before,” Shemper said. 

“For us Jews, we have been here for literally thousands of years – between dark and light, hate and love, between being feared and accepted, between going and coming, between birth and destruction and rebuilding,” he said. “And we will always rebuild.”

Shemper told the story of a similar attack on Beth Israel in 1967, when the Ku Klux Klan bombed the building in retaliation for Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s civil rights activism. In the aftermath, many non-Jewish people in the local community supported the synagogue and denounced the attack.

“Beth Israel is not brick and mortar,” said Russell, who spoke after Shemper. “Beth Israel is the people who gather, who pray, who learn, who argue, who care for one another. Wherever we gather, that is Beth Israel.”

Russell said the attack was meant to make members of Beth Israel feel like they didn’t belong, but the community has embraced them with love and solidarity.

“We are rebuilding trust. We are rebuilding connection. We are rebuilding with the knowledge that we do not do this work by ourselves,” he said.

To close, the rabbi offered a blessing to the crowd, who gave him a standing ovation.

After their remarks, the crowd huddled into small groups to pray for Beth Israel. 

The mayor and Derrick Johnson, national president and CEO of the NAACP, spoke before Shemper and Russell.

“It’s an indictment on our country, on our community, that there wasn’t a way for someone to stand in the gap, to turn him around, to make him inspired not to make that journey,” Horhn said of Pittman.

Horhn led the crowd in a prayer for a better Jackson, for healing and for the entire Jewish community.

“Help us build a Jackson that’s safer, that’s more respectful and more hopeful for everyone,” he said.

Johnson, who lives in Jackson, compared the fire at Beth Israel to similar hate-based attacks in El Paso, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Pittsburgh. He said the common denominator between the attackers is that they were radicalized on social media platforms.

Johnson also said people need to push back against the current political climate. He said this climate was “germinating directly from the White House,” to which one unknown attendee called out, “It’s not coming from the White House.” Johnson did not acknowledge the response.

“Under no circumstance should we allow political platforms to divide us for an agenda that has nothing to do with who we are and who we should be,” Johnson said. “We must learn from our history, not repeat it.”

The night began with worship songs and ended with more prayers for the mayor, city and state officials, and for the state and city itself. At the end, faith groups were invited to adopt an area around their place of worship to do projects that would improve the community. The first workday will be Monday on Martin Luther King Jr Day.

If convicted on the state charge, Pittman’s sentence could be enhanced under a state law that punishes “offenses committed for discriminatory reasons.” The federal government did not immediately not charge him with a hate crime.

A federal affidavit alleges Pittman broke into Beth Israel early Saturday morning, doused the lobby with gasoline and set the building ablaze. 

The fire destroyed the library and administrative offices, two Torahs and the synagogue’s Tree of Life. Several other Torahs were damaged. One Torah that survived the Holocaust and was in a glass case remained unharmed. Beth Israel is accepting donations for rebuilding efforts.

Pittman was arrested at a hospital in Jackson, where he was being treated for burn injuries.

Authorities say Pittman confessed after being arrested that he targeted the synagogue for its “Jewish ties,” and called Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.”

Pittman was released from the hospital Wednesday and is in federal custody ahead of his preliminary hearing in federal court next Tuesday.

The attack drew national and international attention. State, local and national officials have condemned the arson and antisemitism. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, has called on the FBI to investigate the incident as a hate crime.