B’nai B’rith Posts $5,000 Reward in Case of Meridian, Miss. Synagogue Bombing

B’nai B’rith has offered a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons “criminally involved” in the May 27 bombing of a synagogue in Meridian, Miss, and earlier attacks on churches there. The offer was made by Dr. William A. Wexler, president of B’nai B’rith, in a telegram to Mayor Al Key of Meridian. Dr. Wexler wired that the reward money would be made available through the mayor’s office “within 24 hours of the conviction of the guilty party.” Other rewards totalling $45,000 have been offered by the city and private groups.

Temple Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue, was the target of night bombers who caused considerable damage to the religious school. The nearby sanctuary and assembly buildings escaped serious damage. F.B.I, sources indicated that the blast was caused by several sticks of dynamite fashioned into a home-made bomb. It blew out a wall of the building, which was empty at the time, and broke windows in nearby homes.

Rabbi Milton I. Schlager, religious leader of Beth Israel, is a member of the “Committee of Conscience” formed several months ago to deal with the problem of night bombings of houses of worship, which included five Negro churches. At Friday night services before the bombing of Beth Israel, a collection was taken up on behalf of the victimized Negro congregations. Rabbi Schlager told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time that 10 classrooms and the synagogue library were damaged by the bomb. In his telegram to Mayor Key, Dr. Wexler deplored the “cowardly acts of terror and violence” which, he said, were “so debasing to American concepts of civilized human decency.”