The Temple Bombing - Hardcover

Greene, Melissa Faye

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0201622068 ISBN 13: 9780201622065

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 1996

Synopsis

The award-winning author of Praying for Sheetrock describes the October 1958 bombing of the Reform Jewish synagogue in Atlanta and dicusses the role of rabbi Jacob Rothschild as an early spokesman for racial equality. 75,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

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Review:

When the United States South went into an uproar over the 1954 Supreme Court decision in favor of integration, Jacob Rothschild--rabbi of the Temple, Atlanta's oldest and richest synagogue--responded with an outspoken defense of civil rights. "He was aware that he lived in strange times, when the pronouncement of elemental moral observations stirred political havoc." The bombing of the Temple by neo-Nazi extremists in 1958 was but one climactic moment in a progression of conflicting messages and class struggles experienced by Jews in the post-war South. Melissa Fay Greene is a fine storyteller with a rich, literary style: she portrays the social setting, as well as the crime itself and its aftermath, with a plethora of compelling details. By the end of the book, when Rabbi Rothschild is hosting a dinner for Martin Luther King in honor of his Nobel Peace Prize, the reader has gained a solid sense of a pivotal time and place in Southern history.

From the Inside Flap:

TRUE STORY OF A BRUTAL ACT OF HATE

"At 3:37 in the morning of Sunday, Oct. 12, 1958, a bundle of dynamite blew out the side wall of the Temple, Atlanta's oldest and richest synagogue. The devastation to the building was vast--but even greater were the changes those 50 sticks of dynamite made to Atlanta, the South and, ultimately, all of the United States. . . . The synagogue's rabbi, Jacob Rothschild, had been preaching civil rights to his congregation for years. If the bombers thought the dynamite could silence Rothschild, they were sadly misinformed. . . . "  

"GREENE SKILLFULLY WEAVES THE TEMPLE BOMBING INTO THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. . . . A profound social context for her compelling portrait of its hero, Rabbi Rothschild."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"THIS BOOK IS ILLUMINATING AS IT IS SHOCKING. . . . The emotional power of the narrative is heightened by the author's gifts as a storyteller. . . . She h

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0201622068
• ISBN 13: 9780201622065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 502