Beth Israel in Jackson, Mississippi, was attacked by an antisemitic white supremacist arsonist. The fire did major damage to the building and sacred texts. It was a tragedy and an ominous sign of our times.

It wasn’t the first time this synagogue was attacked, either. In the mid-1960s during the civil rights era, it was bombed to protest its rabbi’s advocacy work. This recent attack was a symptom of everything that challenges us in our nation now. Deepening crisis and dislocation have replaced knowledge with ignorance and truth with lies. Loosening of customary and reliable social norms have led to general dislocation and unease in Jackson and beyond. Religious teachings that once informed national civic standards have fallen victim to self-serving and myopic visions of our nation. Pluralistic religious traditions have been the bedrock of reliable norms that guided our nation’s leaders and their constituents, but institutions of justice, too, that once honored values founded in such pluralistic religious traditions have been tarnished by lesser standards and weaker foundations.

The arsonist who burned the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, was as ignorant, unfaithful, and disgraceful as they come. He is the worst example of what our times have produced and failed to prevent. Beth Israel synagogue in Jackson, founded in 1860, represented much more than a Jewish presence in the area. It was a proud center for Jewish worship, education, and community. Its rabbis stood up for everyone in Jackson and beyond by responding to Judaism’s finest lessons about humanity and our covenant with God that makes us responsible for ourselves and each other, Jewish and non-Jewish, alike. By contrast, the Jackson arsonist failed to learn anything from his own faith’s texts and from its leaders. And he was no doubt encouraged by hate-filled content on social media and polarizing headlines in the news.

Everyday, ambivalent responses about hatred of Jews and antisemitism confuse uneducated and impressionable minds and compound unfounded ideas about the other. “Who is a Jew?” used to be a Jewish question we asked each other. Today those who are unfamiliar with Jews or other minority faiths fail to honor their own faith by learning about the other, the stranger, and the immigrant. The other is not an enemy, a vagabond, or a criminal. The other is a hopeful and worthy member of our communities we haven’t yet come to know.

What can we do about the arson in Jackson? First, let’s be honest with ourselves and know that as long as everything that fed this criminal’s heart and mind remains the same, we should be on guard and forewarned about the future. It can happen again. Second, we have an obligation to continue to advocate for the social norms, democratic institutions, and religious values that honor humanity because they honor God. Anything less is unacceptable. We’ve seen the result of electing to try anything less and we’ve observed for ourselves that it fails to honor everything that we and our tradition have long-held dear. Third, we should come to know our neighbors so that they might come to know us.

To learn more about Beth Israel in Jackson, Mississippi, go to their website at https://www.bethisraelms.org/history. May Beth Israel of Jackson, Mississippi, be rebuilt and find new strength with new allies who build with them, again.

L’Shalom,