A person splashed liquid along a wall and onto a couch inside the lobby of Mississippi’s largest synagogue shortly before a fire ignited and destroyed parts of the building in northeast Jackson, according to internal security-camera video footage reviewed by Mississippi Today.

The predawn fire Saturday reduced the Beth Israel Congregation’s library and administrative offices to charred ruins and left smoke damage throughout the building. The destruction occurred in the same part of the building that was damaged when Ku Klux Klan members bombed the temple in 1967 because of the rabbi’s outspoken support of civil rights. 

Local and federal law enforcement made an arrest Saturday night after the suspect was found at a Jackson hospital with burns that were not life-threatening, said Charles Felton, a chief investigator with the Jackson Fire Department.

The fire was ruled an arson, meaning it was intentionally set. By Sunday afternoon, law enforcement had not released the suspect’s name, the exact charges he will face or a possible motive. It was not immediately clear whether investigators consider this a hate crime. 

A Mississippi Today reporter watched a segment of the congregation’s security-camera footage only hours before the arrest was announced Saturday. It showed a person wearing a hooded shirt and a mask over most of his face. The person was holding what appears to be a plastic container while dousing the inside of the lobby with liquid, including a wall adorned with the synagogue’s Tree of Life, an installation that marks special occasions for congregants such as bar and bat mitzvahs.

The video footage has become part of a joint federal, state and local investigation.

The fire was reported shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday, and firefighters extinguished it before sunrise. No congregants or firefighters were injured.

Beth Israel’s congregation president, Zach Shemper, said in a statement Sunday that damage assessment continues, and several churches have extended offers for Beth Israel congregants to use their buildings for worship space. He said the congregation has established a donation fund for rebuilding, with a link on the congregation’s website.

“We are a resilient people,” Shemper said. “With support from our community, we will rebuild.”

Jewish congregations have been attacked in the U.S. in the past several years, including in Pittsburgh, the San Diego area and Colleyville, Texas. The attacks have come amid a rise in  anti-Semitic rhetoric in public spaces and on social media.

News of the fire at Beth Israel prompted an outpouring of support from the Jackson metro area, including from Mayor John Horhn and local religious leaders.

The Rev. CJ Rhodes, pastor of Mount Helm Baptist Church in downtown Jackson, said on social media Sunday that Beth Israel Congregation “holds a sacred place in Jackson’s moral history” because of its courageous support of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Rhodes also said that attacks on houses of worship “strike at the heart of our shared moral life.” He called on people to pray for the Beth Israel Congregation and stand in solidarity with them.

“An injury to one faith community is a concern for us all,” Rhodes said.

Mississippi also has a history of bombings at Black churches. Those reached a peak during the Civil Rights Movement, including the June 1964 arson of Mount Zion Church in Neshoba County — a Ku Klux Klan conspiracy that drew civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman to the area to investigate the fire. 

Chaney was Black, and Goodman and Schwerner were Jewish. After the three young men were jailed a few hours in Philadelphia on an accusation that Chaney was speeding, they were released. Waiting Klansmen chased them on a rural highway, pulled them over and shot them to death. 

Beth Israel is Jackson’s only synagogue, with about 150 families. The congregation does not have a count of individual members but says a family could be one person or multiple people. 

Two Torahs were destroyed and five were damaged in the flames that erupted during Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest, according to temple leaders. One Torah that survived the Holocaust was in a glass case and was undamaged in the fire.

The day after the fire, Beth Israel held children’s Sunday school at a museum in Jackson. 

News of the fire drew international attention, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center is among several groups condemning the attack. 

“We owe gratitude to law enforcement for their swift response, and to civic and religious leaders from other faiths who made it clear that the Jewish community would not stand alone,” the center’s CEO, Jim Berk said in a statement Sunday. “Their leadership is a signal that hate will be met head-on, not met with silence.”

Mississippi Today reporter Allen Siegler contributed to this report.

1/12/2026: This story has been updated to add video clips from a Beth Israel Congregation synagogue security camera.