1994 ⟶ Volksfront Attack on Temple Beth Israel
Chris Lord, an individual associated with the Volksfront and...
Year
1960
1967
1968
1977
1994
💥 Synagogue Firebombing and Shooting in Mississippi
On 25 March, 1960, the synagogue Congregation Beth Israel and its members were subject to an antisemitic attack. About 180 members were attending a Friday evening service to dedicate the new Zemurray Social Hall, and led by then-rabbi Saul Rubin and Rev. John Speaks and Dr. Franklin Denson of First Methodist Church, when windows were smashed and the synagogue fire-bombed. Two members—Alvin Lowi and Alan Cohn—who rushed out to see what was happening were met by Jerry Hunt, a 16-year-old Nazi sympathizer, who wounded them both with a shotgun, then fled. Lowi was just shot in the hand, but one of Cohn's aortas was nicked, and he almost died, requiring 22 US pints (10 L) of blood. Earlier that week Hunt had attended a rally for antisemitic and white supremacist politician John G. Crommelin, and had had a fight with a Jewish boy over a chess game at the Gadsden Community Centre.⟶
AntisemitismViolenceSynagogueHate CrimeWhite Supremacy1960sCivil Rights MovementSouthern United States
United States💥 Dynamite Bombing of Congregation Beth Israel
In 1967, Congregation Beth Israel moved to its current location, a building on Old Canton Road described by Jack Nelson as "an octagonal structure dominated by a massive roof". On 18 September 1967 the new building was wrecked by a dynamite bomb placed by Klan members in a recessed doorway. According to Nelson, the explosion had "ripped through administrative offices and a conference room, torn a hole in the ceiling, blown out windows, ruptured a water pipe and buckled a wall." The perpetrators were not discovered. In November of that year the same group planted a bomb that blew out the front of the house of Dr. Perry Nussbaum (Beth Israel's rabbi from 1954 to 1973), while he and his wife were sleeping there.⟶
AntisemitismViolenceSynagogueHate CrimeKu Klux Klan1960sCivil Rights MovementSouthern United States
United States💣 Ku Klux Klan Bombing of Beth Israel Synagogue
During the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the leadership of Beth Israel spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan's attacks on black churches. In response, Thomas Tarrants of Mobile, Alabama, who had helped bomb the synagogue building of a different synagogue, Beth Israel Congregation, and its rabbi's house there (see previous entry in this timeline) bombed Beth Israel's education building on 28 May 1968. The force of the blast knocked down several walls of the education building and caved in part of the roof while also destroying a door at the opposite end of the synagogue building. A hole approximately 24 inches (61 cm) in diameter was left in the concrete floor, and damages were estimated to be around $50,000 (equivalent to $452,000 today). According to Sammy Feltenstein, past president of Congregation Beth Israel, pieces of stained glass that survived the bombing were salvaged and adorn the front window of the synagogue today. Later that year, on 30 June, Tarrants returned to Meridian to bomb the home of Meyer Davidson, an outspoken leader of the Jewish community, on 29th Avenue. But the FBI and police chief Roy Gunn convinced Raymond and Alton Wayne Roberts, local Klan members, to gather information about the Klan's operations, and leaders of the Jewish communities in Jackson and in Meridian had raised money to pay the two informants, who tipped off the FBI about the attack before it happened.⟶
Ku Klux KlanBombingSynagogueCivil Rights MovementUnited States1960sWhite SupremacyAntisemitismHate Crime
United States🔫 Joseph Paul Franklin's Synagogue Shooting in St. Louis
In suburban St. Louis, Missouri, Joseph Paul Franklin hid in the bushes near a Shaare Zedek Synagogue (University City, Missouri) and fired on a group attending services. In this incident, Franklin killed forty-two-year-old Gerald Gordon and wounded Steven Goldman and William Ash.⟶
Joseph Paul FranklinNeo-NazismWhite SupremacySynagogue Shooting1970sHate CrimeViolence
United States🔥 Volksfront Attack on Temple Beth Israel
Chris Lord, an individual associated with the Volksfront and American Front, fired ten rounds with an assault rifle into Temple Beth Israel (Eugene, Oregon), damaging the interior.⟶
ViolenceHate CrimeTempleEugeneWhite SupremacyVolksfrontAntisemitism1990s
United States🔫 Brooklyn Bridge Shooting of Chabad-Lubavitch Students
On 1 March 1994, on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, Lebanese-born immigrant Rashid Baz shot at a van of 15 Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish students that was traveling on the Brooklyn Bridge, killing one and injuring three others. See 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting.⟶
ViolenceShootingBrooklyn BridgeChabadAntisemitism1990sHate Crime
United States