Stephen Pittman has been charged with the arson of Mississippi’s Beth Israel synagogue

The suspect accused of setting fire to a Mississippi synagogue that was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan admitted he intended to target the building because it was a Jewish house of worship and turned himself in to police after laughingly confessing to his father, the FBI said Monday.

Stephen Pittman, 19, has been charged in federal court with vandalizing or destroying a structure by fire or explosives in connection with the weekend arson of Beth Israel in Jackson.

According to an FBI affidavit, Pittman admitted to setting the synagogue on fire, calling it “the synagogue of Satan.” Authorities say Pittman’s father contacted the FBI after seeing burns on his ankles, hands and face, and hearing his son confess to setting the building on fire.

“Pittman laughed when he told his father what he did and said he finally got it,” the FBI said in the document, according to WLBT-TV.

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Pittman made his first appearance Monday in US District Court via video from a hospital bed, where both his hands were bandaged. A public defender was appointed to represent him.

Prosecutors say Pittman faces five to 20 years in prison if convicted. When the judge advised him of his rights, Pittman replied, “Jesus Christ is King.”

Synagogue services were suspended indefinitely following the fire. (Beth Israel)

Pittman told the judge that he is a high school senior who has completed three semesters of college. He is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 20.

The fire broke out after three o’clock in the morning on Saturday. No brothers or firefighters were injured, but the fire caused extensive damage to the synagogue’s library and administrative offices.

Congregation Beth Israel in Jackson is the largest synagogue in the state. None of the brothers were injured, officials said. (Beth Israel)

Security footage released by the church shows a masked, hooded person pouring liquid from the gas on the floor and sofa inside the building’s entrance. Investigators say Pittman stopped at a gas station early to buy gas and took out his license plate number. It is said that he used an ax to break a window, poured gasoline into the synagogue and then lit it with a torch.

The affidavit says Pittman texted his father a picture of the synagogue before the fire, writing, “There’s a fireplace in the back.” When his father begged him to come home, Pittman allegedly replied that he was “going to be given a homerun” and said, “I did my research.”

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Investigators later found a burned cell phone believed to be Pittman’s, and seized a flashlight that was recovered by the church.

Boards cover the charred remains of the library of Congregation Beth Israel, which burned early Saturday, Jan. 12. 2026, Jackson, Mississippi. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)

Five Torah scrolls inside the sanctuary were being examined for smoke damage. Two Torahs kept in the synagogue’s library were destroyed. Another Torah that survived the Holocaust was protected by glass and was unharmed, the church said.

The 165-year-old synagogue is the largest in the state and was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s.

“This news puts a face and a name to this tragedy, but it does not change our determination to proudly – even defiantly – continue Jewish life in Jackson in the face of hatred,” Congregation Beth Israel said in a statement.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement through the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi that she has directed prosecutors to seek “severe penalties.”

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“This heinous act of anti-Semitic violence has no place in our country, and unlike previous administrations, this Justice Department will not allow anti-Semitism to flourish,” Bondi said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.