With a Surge In US Synagogues Targeted, Why Can’t Authorities Stop It?
- Ofek Kehila
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
Recently, Mississippi’s largest synagogue was burned to the ground by an antisemitic arsonist. This attack is the last in a series of crimes perpetrated against synagogues and Jewish congregations across the US.
Mississippi synagogue arson
On Saturday, January 10, 2026, Beth Israel Congregation, the largest synagogue in Mississippi, was maliciously burned to the ground by an arsonist. The same synagogue had been bombed on September 18, 1967, by the Ku Klux Klan. Even though the identity of the perpetrators changes, the reason behind the attacks remains the same: hateful antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
The perpetrator of the current arson attack, Stephen Spencer Pittman, was caught lighting the fire inside the synagogue by security cameras. He later confessed to the arson and admitted to an antisemitic motive, referring to Beth Israel Congregation as the “synagogue of Satan.”
Pittman faces five to 20 years in prison for torching the Mississippi synagogue. Unfortunately, experience shows that this is not enough, and without further measures, the next arson attack against a US synagogue is just around the corner.
Synagogues are targeted across the US
The arson of Beth Israel Congregation is just the latest in a series of crimes perpetrated against synagogues and Jewish congregations across the US.
Around New Year’s Day 2026, at least six synagogues were targeted with fake bomb threats, including synagogues in Florida, Ohio, and Hawaii. One of the bomb threats blatantly disclosed the antisemitic and anti-Zionist motive behind the targeting: “when one of you dumb k**es touches the device and triggers its detonation… This attack is in resistance to the ongoing Israeli genocide and occupation of innocent people and their rightful land.”
In October 2025, threatened attacks on synagogues in Alabama and surrounding states resulted in the arrest of a man holding weapons, body armor, and a suitcase full of ammunition.
In September 2025, a man was arrested and charged with arson of a synagogue in Florida, days before Rosh Hashanah. The perpetrator’s mother told the police her son “has a hatred toward homosexuals and Jewish people that’s become worse over the past years.”
This grim list goes on. The crimes are evident, and the motives are clear. So why can’t authorities stop this?
Why can’t authorities stop it?
Synagogues have become a favorite target for antisemitic and anti-Zionist gunmen, bomb senders, and arsonists. According to a study of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, incidents targeting US synagogues in January and February of 2023 were up 71.4% over the same period in the previous year.
Joined by the recent attacks, this data warns of an imminent life threat to entire Jewish communities and congregations across the US. However, authorities are not doing enough to stop this.
It is not enough to arrest and charge the perpetrators of these attacks. This is because they do not occur in a void, but rather within an extremely antisemitic atmosphere. This means that even if gunmen and arsonists are arrested, more will follow in their path.
Authorities cannot stop this wave of violence and hatred since they are reluctant to deal with the root of the problem: the legitimacy to express antisemitic and anti-Zionist views on social media, on campus, in the classroom, and on the street.
Others, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, openly allow anti-Zionist hate to spread by revoking the city’s implementation of an antisemitism definition that includes some forms of Israel criticism.
Read more: Is Anti-Zionism a New Form of Hatred?
Wrap up
Hate crimes against synagogues and Jewish congregations across the US are symptoms of antisemitic hate. Unless some serious measures are taken by US authorities to prevent such hate from spreading and mainstreaming by antisemitic and anti-Zionist movements, the next synagogue arson is just around the corner.
Ofek Kehila (Israel, 1987) is a scholar of Spanish Golden Age literature and Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. His research bridges the gap between those traditions, highlighting their aesthetic, cultural, and historical dialogue. He holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Freie Universität Berlin (2023-2025).