The arson in December at Beth Israel Congregation didn’t simply injury the one synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi. It additionally threw into disarray the operations of a Jewish nonprofit that goals to serve your complete American South.
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life is housed on the reverse finish of the Beth Israel constructing from the library the place the fireplace began. Most of its actions happen off website, within the small Jewish communities scattered throughout the area, and far of its archives had been digitized earlier than the fireplace.
Nonetheless, the arson assault struck an establishment that, since its founding in 2000, has linked far-flung congregations throughout the South and imbued generations of Jewish leaders with an appreciation for Jewish life in a area the place group is usually small, deeply rooted and hard-won.
“That is form of the hub of the place issues occur, so we’re nonetheless assessing what is really misplaced, what could be repaired, what can’t be,” Michele Schipper, the group’s CEO, stated forward of the synagogue’s first Shabbat for the reason that assault.
Even because the institute embarks on the lengthy street of repairing its brick-and-mortar headquarters, its core mission of connecting and sustaining Jewish communities throughout the South stays unchanged.
“Will probably be necessary for my communities this winter and spring to be with me, to listen to from me about what’s occurring,” stated Rabbi Salem Pearce, who’s formally ISJL’s director of spirituality however unofficially “the touring rabbi of the South.” She roves from her dwelling in Durham, North Carolina, throughout 70 congregations all through a 13-state area that extends from Texas to Florida.
Following the arson assault, Pearce stated she believed the communities she serves had taken the assault personally as a result of “they establish strongly, each with the ISJL and with the thought of being susceptible being a small Jewish group within the South.”
“I all the time wish to floor what I do in Torah and in Jewish custom, and I feel that each of these issues have lots to say in regards to the energy of group and resilience and being collectively and survival,” stated Pearce.
For years, the institute additionally positioned early-career Jewish educators in Southern communities by means of its flagship fellowship program. This system resulted in 2022, however the community of dozens of former fellows scattered throughout the nation say their work supporting Jewish life within the South left lasting impressions on their very own Jewish identities.
Rabbi Lex Rofeberg, an ISJL fellow from 2013 to 2015, was attending a gathering of clergy from the Jewish Renewal motion in Boulder, Colorado, when he first heard the information of the arson.
“I felt in my physique like a deep ache, and I instantly flashed to the unimaginable experiences I had as a part of that synagogue group,” stated Rofeberg.
He wasn’t the one one on the convention to really feel that approach. “I used to be with those who had a shared connection to the area and who I had met by means of this unimaginable group, and I assumed all that was useful,” he stated. “So it was heartbreaking, and it was significant to see in that area a pair hundred individuals trying to be supportive of this group.”
Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, on Jan. 16, 2025. (Jewish Telegraphic Company)
Molly Levy, ISJL’s director of training, stated one of many the explanation why the institute shifted away from the fellowship program was that the communities had been so robust that they wanted greater than momentary fellows might present.
“They’ve all used the curriculum, they’re very aware of it, they usually wish to do issues which might be extra experiential, and making their faculties match the scholars that they’ve in the present day, in addition to having these large conversations round antisemitism, round security, ensuring that their college students really feel protected,” Levy stated.
The communities within the community additionally bond with one another. For Beth Israel Congregation’s first Shabbat service following the arson assault, the congregation used a Torah borrowed from Temple B’nai Israel, positioned about 90 miles southeast alongside Route 49.
“We’re simply down the street in Hattiesburg. So individuals instantly wished to know, OK, how can we assist?” stated Rabbi Debra Kassoff of Temple B’nai Israel, who grew to become the ISJL’s first director of rabbinic providers in 2003.
Throughout her stint because the ISJL’s resident rabbi, Kassoff traveled throughout the area to supply rabbinic providers to congregations.
“It was an honor, it was fascinating and overwhelming,” stated Kassoff. “Once I first got here right here I felt actually embraced, individuals appeared excited to have me, and had been glad that I used to be desirous to be there and be part of this sort of nook of the American Jewish panorama that’s so typically missed.
The unique constructing of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Expertise, which was the precursor to the ISJL, on the Henry S. Jacobs camp in Utica, Mississippi. (Courtesy Invoice Aron)
Within the wake of the assault, rabbis from a number of Southern congregations rapidly voiced their dismay and solidarity with the institute.
Rabbi Jeremy Simons, a former director of the rabbinic division on the ISJL and incoming rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, recalled his time in Jackson in a publish on Fb and appealed to his followers to donate to the synagogue’s restoration fund.
“Whereas I’ve loads of fond reminiscences in that constructing and in that library, there are such a lot of who name Beth Israel their religious dwelling and are feeling a ache neither you or I’ll ever know (God prepared),” wrote Simmons. “I do know you don’t should have frolicked in that constructing, and even know of its existence, to be shaken by this information. I attempt to remind myself they will destroy our buildings, however they will by no means destroy our religion. If something it’s going to solely strengthen it.”
Rabbi Raina Siroty of Temple Beth-El in Knoxville, Tennessee, wrote in a publish on Fb that the ISJL had “linked and strengthened Jewish communities from Texas to the Florida Panhandle,” including that “Southern Jewish communities are woven deeply into the material of their cities. They need to worship with out concern.”
Rabbi Jason Holtz of Temple Kehillat Chaim in Roswell, Georgia, wrote in one other publish that he had attended the ISJL’s convention inside just a few weeks of transferring to Georgia.
“I keep in mind leaving with a way of enthusiasm but in addition amazement on the great those who present such assets and management for Jewish communities all around the South,” he wrote. “When individuals consider Jewish life, locations like Jackson in all probability don’t instantly come to thoughts. However Jews all around the South, my congregation included, have benefited a lot from the tireless and devoted individuals who name Jackson dwelling.”
Smoke injury inside a classroom in Beth Israel Congregation on Jan. 16, 2025. (Jewish Telegraphic Company)
Schipper stated many previous fellows and employees of the ISJL had additionally shared messages of help.
“There’s such highly effective messages that they’re sharing and remembrances of their time right here in Jackson and at Beth Israel, as a result of for a lot of, this was their first non-parent dwelling synagogue,” she stated. “I’m overwhelmed in the absolute best approach of the outpouring of help from the area people to the Jewish group worldwide. It actually makes me proud to be Jewish.”
Rofeberg stated his two years on the ISJL, which included internet hosting a “Purim-gras,” or a Mardi Gras-Purim combo at a Louisiana synagogue, had been “pivotal” in setting him on a path to hunt rabbinic ordination.
“I feel I went down pondering I used to be doing this grand service as any person who had discovered in faculty about Judaism,” stated Rofeberg. “And I actually rapidly discovered how unsuitable that was, and the way so many of those communities I used to be visiting and the group I used to be residing in had far more to show me than I needed to train them.”
Megan Roberts Koller, an ISJL fellow from 2007 to 2009 who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, stated her time with the institute deepened her personal understanding of her identification as a Jew within the South.
“I feel being in an setting with numerous several types of individuals helped me notice how particular the Southern Jewish expertise was,” she stated. “It was fascinating to be a part of one thing so new and one thing so completely different.”
Roberts Koller recalled the fellows occurring journeys to the Neshoba County Truthful and native blues live shows to expertise a “slice of life” of Mississippi.
“Particularly over the summers, once we had been touring much less and we had been onboarding new individuals, there was fairly a push to have us expertise that genuine Mississippi summer time and assist individuals really feel each out of their consolation zone and cozy in Mississippi,” she stated.
Whereas Roberts Koller, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, not works in Jewish communal life, she stated her experiences on the ISJL had impressed her to proceed pursuing Jewish involvement in her personal group.
“The expertise of working for the Institute of Southern Jewish life and seeing congregational life all throughout the South and cities massive and small, I feel, actually made an affect and made it a precedence to be a part of a congregation right here in Nashville,” she stated.
Lately, Levy stated the ISJL had created a “catalogue” of classes about Jewish delight and data on educating college students about antisemitism.
Workers collect throughout the ISJL’s 2025 retreat. (Courtesy Michele Schipper)
At the moment, the ISJL’s antisemitism curriculum begins within the eighth grade, however Levy stated she was engaged on beginning antisemitism training within the earlier grades.
“Once I go right into a group, I often meet with the kids, and can often have conversations on being the one Jewish child in your college or being a small inhabitants of Jewish youngsters in your college,” stated Levy. “Once I ask, ‘Have you ever heard one thing antisemitic, or have you ever had an incident in your college?’ It’s very uncommon when somebody doesn’t elevate their hand.”
Trying forward, Schipper stated the institute’s focus will likely be on constructing on a agency basis, not simply in its bodily area however within the messages it delivers throughout the South.
“If you happen to have a look at our curriculum, it already had data on the way to be a proud Jew,” stated Schipper. “So I feel, can we strengthen that message? Can we let individuals know a bit of bit extra about what we’re doing, in order that they’re properly conscious that this group is offering help to those communities in so some ways.”
For Levy, the aftermath of the assault has underscored the energy of the group’s broad spanning group.
“It’s solely proven us how extremely highly effective our community and the way extremely necessary these connections are, simply due to the entire outpouring of affection and help that’s come from our different ISJL communities and the way a lot they wish to help Beth Israel,” she stated. “It’s been actually onerous and actually unhappy and actually difficult, and we had been extremely able to activate our community and activate the help that we wanted to offer.”
Schipper stated she might see an upside to the grim circumstances that introduced nationwide consideration to her work this yr.
“This isn’t how I’d love extra publicity,” she stated, referring to the arson. “But when any person else learns about who we’re and what we do and goes, ‘Oh my gosh, my cousin’s in Kentucky, they usually might actually use your assets,’ then nice.”
