Your Daily Phil: Mississippi Goddam: Jackson synagogue arson fire renews calls for vigilance
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we speak with a Jewish security expert following this weekend’s arson attack on Jackson, Miss.’s only synagogue and report on the arrest of the suspected perpetrator. We also report on a far-right activist’s claim that the Kennedy Center will sell off the Israeli Lounge unless Jewish donors contribute to its renovation fund. We feature an opinion piece by Gennady Favel offering a message of hope from the Jewish Soviet experience for communities being rocked by antisemitism today, and one by Rabbi Daniel Landes about imposter syndrome and other issues prevalent along the rabbinic pipeline. Also in this issue: Ronald Lauder, Irwin Jacobs and Richard Hirschhaut.
What We’re Watching
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S NIRA DAYANIM
After the only synagogue in Jackson, Miss., Congregation Beth Israel, was severely damaged in an arson attack on Saturday, Jewish community security professionals are calling for continued vigilance, but also to refrain from jumping to specific, concrete conclusions about the firebombing and its motivations as the investigation is still underway. Read more about the arson below.
While a suspect has been arrested in the case, he has yet to be named, and it is not yet clear how sophisticated the attack was. Surveillance footage of the attack showed that one person poured what appeared to be an accelerant around the lobby before starting the fire, Mississippi Today reported yesterday. However, it is not yet known if the arson attack was solely the work of an individual or if a network was involved in the planning. These details can be critical for assessing the level and nature of threats posed to other Jewish institutions and communities.
“There’s still a lot of information we don’t know. As far as I can see, the suspect hasn’t been made public yet, so we don’t know how much of it was targeted, how much preparation went into it,” Richard Priem, CEO of the Community Security Service, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Our experience is that information tends to change with time, and assumptions that people tend to draw may not always play out. We saw that a lot after the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney, [Australia,] there were a lot of rumors floating about what happened, and it took one or two weeks until we were actually able to do a full debrief where we invited our partners from Australia to join. And there were a lot of things that we learned then that in the first few days after the attack were not available.” While CSS operates in the Southeast region, Priem noted that the organization was not specifically active in Beth Israel.
This is the second time that the synagogue, which has launched a donation drive, has been targeted in such an attack; in 1967, it was set on fire by members of the Ku Klux Klan in response to the rabbi’s support for the Civil Rights Movement. Many Jewish leaders noted this history in response to the weekend’s arson attack. “Beth Israel Congregation in Mississippi was once firebombed during the [Civil Rights] movement for standing on the right side of justice. To see it targeted again this Shabbat is a chilling reminder that hatred never just disappears — it resurfaces when left unchallenged,” World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said in a statement. “Incidents like this are fueled by an increasingly radicalized society, emboldened by the unchecked spread of hate across social media. Antisemitism and extremism are once again surging and must be confronted with vigor and decisive action.”
The synagogue’s history adds a “symbolic” level to the attack, said Priem. With heightened antisemitism over the last few years, CSS has also seen an “uptick” in arson attacks and attempted arson, as well as synagogues being targeted more generally, he added.
Priem stressed that after the Jackson arson attack, the basic recommendation for synagogues and Jewish institutions remains the same: Be vigilant. “We always look at incidents that happen and use them to inform training plans and operations, but we’ve been pushing and encouraging our teams to be proactive for a long while, and that does not change. We were pushing it two days ago [before the arson], and we’ll encourage it tomorrow,” Priem said. “In terms of what we advise teams to do, we advised our teams to protect their synagogues last Shabbat, we advise them to protect their synagogues this Shabbat, and we’ll advise them to do it next Shabbat: We try to get our teams to always be vigilant, and that doesn’t change.”
FIREBOMBING PROBE
Mississippi capital’s only synagogue targeted in arson attack
A suspect is under arrest for an act of arson that significantly damaged Mississippi’s largest synagogue early Saturday morning, authorities reported. Local law enforcement arrested a suspect whom they believe purposefully set fire to Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday, Jackson Mayor John Horhn confirmed. The suspect’s name and motive have not been disclosed, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. No congregants were injured in Saturday’s blaze. Two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and five more were damaged. A Torah that survived the Holocaust, which was kept in a glass case, was unharmed. The congregation’s library and administrative office were ruined, though the main sanctuary appears to have sustained limited damage.
Southern Jewish life: Beth Israel Congregation is the only synagogue in Jackson, the state’s capital and most populous city. The historic building also houses the offices of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish life in the region. “We have already had outreach from other houses of worship in the Jackson area and greatly appreciate their support in this very difficult time,” the synagogue president, Zach Shemper, said in a statement.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
GRENELL ULTIMATUM?
Report: Kennedy Center president says Israeli Lounge will be sold off, unless Jewish donors pony up
The future of the Trump-Kennedy Center’s Israeli Lounge is reportedly in peril, as the organization’s president, Richard Grenell, told far-right activist Laura Loomer that he is considering selling it to a corporate donor — unless a Jewish donor makes a substantial contribution to keep the lounge as is, Loomer claimed in a post on X, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
Put up or shut up: The Israeli Lounge was gifted to the Kennedy Center in 1971 by then-Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yitzhak Rabin. Loomer, a self-described independent journalist, previously claimed that Grenell was considering handing the lounge over to Qatar as a condition of a major donation from Doha for the Kennedy Center’s renovation fund. Over the weekend, Loomer said that Grenell had given “his word” that the lounge would not be sold to Qatar, but that “the [Israeli] Lounge will absolutely go away and possibly be given to a ‘corporate donor’ unless a major donor from the Jewish community steps up and makes a large donation to save the lounge with a 5-year renovation plan.”
HISTORY’S LESSON
From Soviet shadows to American sunlight: An antisemitism cycle we’ve seen before
“The United States is now experiencing a rise in antisemitism that many immigrants from the former Soviet Union find painfully familiar,” writes Jewish communal professional Gennady Favel in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Acts once considered rare have become common. … To someone seeing these trends for the first time in their own community this can come as a complete shock. But while these developments are unsettling, they are not the full story.”
Reason for hope: “American Jewish life is unlikely to return to the calm many once took for granted. But that does not mean it is heading toward decline. More often, it shifts into a form marked by clarity, purpose and resilience. Those who lived through the Soviet Union understand how quickly a hostile environment can change and how unexpectedly renewal can begin. They remember when fear dominated daily life, and they remember when that fear suddenly receded. The pendulum always moves. Darkness rises, but it also breaks. History has taught Jews to expect both moments. And it suggests that this country, in time, will emerge into a better one.”
VIEW FROM THE FIELD
For tomorrow’s rabbinate, we must up our game
“After more than 50 years teaching and mentoring those pursuing the rabbinate, the Atra report struck a chord with me,” writes Rabbi Daniel Landes, rosh hayeshiva of Yashrut, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Despite renewed interest in Jewish study and service, I have observed many deeply committed and very talented Jews find themselves almost allergic to rabbinical school: I have seen them not start, not finish or, upon finishing, feel profoundly alienated from their education. It is clear that this has brought about a crisis in the recruitment and training of rabbis.”
Root causes: “First, today’s best students are profoundly a-ideological and a-denominational. They are not interested in ideology, yet they find rabbinical schools deeply immersed in it, with unspoken but very present dogma in both denominational and renewal models of education. They do not experience this discourse as either spiritual or intellectual. Alongside this rejection, they quickly grow bored with a professional-school atmosphere filled with excessive bureaucracy and failed visionaries. Second, even the most talented students face the crushing recognition that after all their considerable years of education, they still will not emerge with any real mastery of the classics: Talmud, commentaries and codes. Recently, a brilliant new graduate of a rabbinical school confessed to me: ‘I feel that I am condemned to depending on anthologies, translations or articles — a terminal beginner.’”
Worthy Reads
‘Dignity, Health, Security’: In The Times of Israel, Knesset Member Yasmin Sacks Fridman, chair of the parliament’s Special Committee on the Treatment of Holocaust Survivors, reflects on what the State of Israel owes its Holocaust survivor citizens. “Our committee has not only a task of historic and moral importance, but one that differs from that of nearly every other committee in the Knesset: It’s a very defined task with a tragically short horizon. Making sure the approximately 112,000 Holocaust survivors and victims of antisemitic persecution living in Israel today can live out their lives in dignity, health, and security. How we rise to meet this challenge is a legacy that will stay with us as Israelis and as Jews for generations to come. These survivors face a variety of challenges, and in an often polarized Knesset, it is up to us – opposition and coalition – to come together and meet them head on. … The Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority and civil society organizations are doing tremendous work, but among the lessons of the last few years in Israel is that such work is not a replacement for responsible, focused leadership and oversight from the political level.” [TOI]
Committed to Change: In an opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Shanie Reichman cautions that even as leaders of the American Jewish establishment declare a two-state solution unrealistic, most younger Jews feel differently. “Three-quarters of American Jews ages 18-49 support self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians; 81% say they want programs that help advance peace; 67% feel responsible to support Israel, and 69% feel responsible to stand up for the Palestinian people. … This is a generation insisting that empathy and security are not mutually exclusive and unwilling to abandon the possibility of a political resolution. … To us, giving up on the possibility of a political resolution is not pragmatism; it is surrender. And surrender is not aligned with Zionist values. Amidst their peers who are chanting ‘death to Israel,’ our young professionals are demonstrating that true investment in a peaceful future requires forward-looking pragmatism that leans in, not away from, Israel.” [JTA]
Dark Humor: In The Atlantic, Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov recounts details from her years of captivity in Iraq, where she was detained in March 2023 while conducting fieldwork for her Ph.D. “Four men searched my mouth for implanted tracking devices. I had told them I didn’t have any — that, as far as I knew, such things existed only in movies. They asked if I had fillings, and I confessed that I did. They looked again. ‘No, you don’t,’ one of them corrected me, having failed to find any glint of silver. My fillings are white. The men, wearing dark civilian clothes and balaclavas, seemed convinced that these unfamiliar fillings posed a threat to their operational security. That’s when I knew that my kidnapping was going to be a little bit different.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is seeking to end the military assistance it receives from the U.S. in the next 10 years, a move that he said is “in the works,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism from Democratic leaders over his delayed and muted response to last week’s pro-Hamas protest in Queens that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early in anticipation of the demonstration, where dozens of masked protesters chanted “We support Hamas” near the synagogue, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Hundreds of Arab Israelis and allies protested in Jerusalem amid a massive, deadly crime wave in the Arab Israeli community…
A bid to mine lithium in Ukraine that was backed in part by World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder — a longtime friend of President Donald Trump — is poised to receive government approval, in what is widely seen as an indicator of Kyiv’s desire to open the country to outside investment as it seeks American support in its war against Russia’s invasion…
President Donald Trump told The New York Times that neither the Republican Party nor the MAGA movement have space for antisemitism, saying that the GOP doesn’t “need” or “like” people who espouse antisemitism; the president also called himself “the least antisemitic person probably there is anywhere in the world”; meanwhile, far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, who has hosted Holocaust deniers on his platform, joined a lunch with Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday and attended a meeting between the president and oil and gas executives regarding Venezuela…
Jewish actors Timothée Chalamet and Seth Rogen took home awards at the Golden Globes — Chalamet for his role in the movie “Marty Supreme” — loosely based on the life of American Jewish table tennis star Marty Reisman — and Rogen for his satire show “The Studio”…
Google co-founder Larry Page bought two Miami properties for $173.4 million, amid an influx of Silicon Valley execs to South Florida as California gears up for a referendum on a tax on billionaires…
Friends and comrades of Josh Boone, an American-born IDF lone soldier who served extensively in the reserves and died over the weekend after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, are launching a campaign to have him recognized as a fallen soldier. This comes after the military determined that he would not receive full military honors at his funeral as he did not die while in reserve duty…
Bob Weir, the guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, which maintains a large Jewish fan base, died last week at 78…
Norma Burdett, an active volunteer in the Washington Jewish community, died last month at 95…
Major Gifts
The Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation donated $20 million to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., to renovate and improve its Bloch Building…
Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs created a $4.5 million fund to support the San Diego Opera and San Diego Symphony…
A crowdfunding campaign for Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, raised $1.5 million for Good’s family…
Transitions
Richard Hirschhaut is joining Jewish National Fund-USA as its national campaign director for the West Coast and Mountain states after six years as the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Los Angeles office…
Jay Greenlinger was named the next dean of the Masor School for Jewish Education and Leadership at the American Jewish University…
Pic of the Day
Israeli sculptor Yaacov Agam, 97, visits the Agam Museum in Rishon LeZion, outside of Tel Aviv, yesterday. The artist’s visit to his eponymous museum, which houses much of his work, comes shortly after he was named as the next recipient of the Israel Prize for the Arts. Agam, whose boldly colored geometric works have appeared in exhibitions around the world, is perhaps best known for his “Fire and Water Fountain” in central Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square.
Birthdays
Recording artist and musical entertainer, Yaakov Shwekey turns 49…
Real estate and casino magnate, he is a minority owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox, Neil Gary Bluhm turns 88… U.S.-born biochemist, he moved to Israel in 1973, winner of the Israel Prize (1999) and professor emeritus at Hebrew U, Howard “Chaim” Cedar turns 83… Stephen Moses… Israel-born jewelry designer, editor and businesswoman, she was the first lady of Iceland from 2003 until 2016, Dorrit Moussaieff turns 76… Author of over 40 books, most widely recognized for his crime fiction, Walter Ellis Mosley turns 74… New York City-based psychiatrist and president of the Child Mind Institute, Harold S. Koplewicz, MD turns 73… Radio personality on Sirius XM, Howard Stern turns 72… British novelist and grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien (one of the latter’s two Jewish grandchildren), Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien turns 67… Senior director of philanthropic engagement at Jewish Funders Network, she was a consultant for DreamWorks on the film “The Prince of Egypt,” Tzivia Schwartz Getzug… Midday news anchor at Washington’s WTOP Radio, Debra Feinstein turns 64… Board member and former chair of Hillel International, she is also a board chair of Mem Global (f/k/a Moishe House), Tina Price… Member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Jon S. Cardin turns 56… Identical twin comedians and actors, Randy Sklar and Jason Sklar turn 54… Filmmaker known for parody films, Aaron Seltzer turns 52… First-ever woman to be an MLB coach, in 2024 she was a co-founder of a women’s pro baseball league, Justine Siegal Ph.D. turns 51… Rabbinical advisor of Shabtai, Shmully Hecht turns 51… Professional golfer, Rob Oppenheim turns 46… Two-time Olympian (2012 and 2016) in beach volleyball, now a chiropractor and performance coach, Josh Binstock turns 45… Founder of The Jewish Majority, Jonathan Schulman… Director of major gifts in the mid-Atlantic region for American Friends of Magen David Adom, Ira Gewanter… Executive director of the Hillel at Virginia Tech, Amanda Herring… Vice president of finance and operations at New York City-based Hornig Capital Partners, Daniel Silvermintz… Israeli tennis player, Lina Glushko turns 26…
