Rewards totaling at least $50,000 had been posted here by today for information leading to the arrest of night-riders who bombed Temple Beth Israel in Jackson last September and hurled a bomb into the home of its spiritual leader, Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, last week. Half the amount has been pledged by local civic and business leaders, and the balance was posted with Mayor Allan Thompson from an anonymous source.
While the official community expressed outrage at the bombing, and Rabbi Nussbaum’s congregation called it “an attack on every member of the Jewish faith,” the head of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations called on Governor-elect John Bell Williams to repudiate the racist and segregationist groups in the state which, many believe, were implicated in the bombings. Kenneth I. Dean, director of the Council, referred specifically to the Ku Klux Klan, Americans for the Preservation of the White Race and the White Citizens Council. He charged that members of the Governor’s campaign organization and of his personal staff were either connected with these organizations or attended meetings in support of them. Rabbi Nussbaum has been active in the civil rights movement.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
