The Atlanta Jewish community is responding to a devastating act of antisemitism in Jackson, MS, where Beth Israel Congregation was destroyed by arson on Jan. 10.
Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutch, State Rep. Esther Panitch (D-Dunwoody), and US Sen. Jon Ossoff have condemned the destruction of the only synagogue in the state’s capital city.
Along with a sanctuary, the building included a library, a Hebrew school, a small Holocaust museum, and was a hub for communal Jewish life in central Mississippi
Barbara and the late Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, longtime clergy member at The Temple in Atlanta, were married at Beth Israel in May 1965. Barbara spent her youth at Beth Israel; her great-grandparents were founders of the congregation in 1860, when 15 families bought a plot of land and built a modest, wooden schoolhouse and worship space. It was the first synagogue in Mississippi.
On Sept. 18, 1967, Beth Israel was bombed by local Ku Klux Klan members. Two months later, the same group bombed Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s home.
Alvin Sugarman grew up at The Temple in Midtown Atlanta, which was famously bombed in 1958 during the Civil Rights Era.
Barbara told Rough Draft that she and Alvin may be the only rabbinic couple to have both survived their synagogues and rabbi’s homes being bombed.
“I think – and I don’t know if it’s still true today – that my husband and I are the only rabbinic couple whose synagogues were bombed and rabbis’ houses was bombed. It’s just been gut wrenching, really,” Barbara said. “I’ve been so distressed, and yet I’ve had wonderful outpouring of love from people from people I went to high school with that I haven’t seen in 50 years, and people [in Atlanta], as well lovely notes from people who know that I grew up there.”
A campaign to rebuild has been posted on the Beth Israel website. Barbara said members of a sister congregation in Memphis are writing letters to Beth Israel to lend support.
“Thankfully, every community in Atlanta and communities all over the country are making monetary contributions to Beth Israel. I’ve spoken with people in Jackson, and they said people have been very forthcoming,” she said.
One Holocaust-era Torah was untouched by the fire due to being encased in glass. It was brought to Mississippi by Gilbert Metz, the state’s only concentration camp survivor, according to The Forward.
The FBI has been conducting an investigation into the arson, arresting and charging 19-year-old Stephen Spencer Pittman in federal court with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by fire.
