Over the weekend I noted the torching of Mississippi’s Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson. It is the state’s largest synagogue and a previous victim of arson dating back to the civil rights era.
This week the FBI found the perpetrator with a little help from his father. Salena Zito devoted a column exploring the question who inspired him. She reports:
Russ Latino, a native Mississippian and founder of the Jackson-based Magnolia Tribune Institute, said an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi alleges Pittman admitted to law enforcement that he set the fire at Beth Israel because of its “Jewish ties.” Latino added that Pittman referred to the synagogue as the “Synagogue of Satan” and detailed the steps he took leading up to the arson.
Latino noted that “Synagogue of Satan” is an antisemitic phrase that both Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens have used in recent years. “Nothing in his personal profile points out anything political. There is no Trump or Biden or Harris. There are just a lot of bible verses,” he said, adding, “But ‘Synagogue of Satan’ well, that is a pretty specific alliteration and the same phraseology used by Fuentes and Owens,” he said.
Latino’s Magnolia Tribune backgrounder is accessible at the link. Daniel Tyson shares a byline on the story exploring Pittman’s online world:
While Pittman’s social media presence is largely benign, featuring an assortment of baseball posts, workout supplements and references to his Christian faith, there are some anti-semitic posts, including an Instagram post a day prior to the fire.
In that post, a cartoon made to approximate Spongebob Squarepants plays on common tropes used by anti-semitic people against Jews. The cartoon figure is holding two bags of money, wearing a “Star of David” necklace. A woman comes out and exclaims “there’s a Jew in our backyard! I can’t believe my “Jewcrow” didn’t work.” The camera pans to a scarecrow waiter with a portfolio that reads “TIPS PLEASE.” The woman kicks the cartoon in a pool and says “you’re getting baptized right now.”
Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen also covered Pittman’s apprehension in this story. She adds that the FBI’s Jackson field office plans no press to provide further details. The FBI is of the Keatsian opinion “that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
