The Temple Bombing - Softcover

Greene, Melissa Fay

4.06

267 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449908097 ISBN 13: 9780449908099

Publisher: Fawcett, 1997

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THE SHOCKING 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 has talent for bringing scenes vividly alive."
--The New York Times Book Review

"READS LIKE A GRIPPING, BESTSELLING NOVEL . . . How and why this horrific bombing transpired is the book's main subject. Unraveling who would do such a thing becomes a psychological thriller in Greene's hands. . . . The Temple Bombing culminates in the suspenseful trials following the crime."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"RICH WITH ARTFULLY DRAWN CHARACTERS . . . We can be grateful to Greene for re-creating the story of an unheralded hero of the civil rights movement."
--Atlanta Journal & Constitution

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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.

About the Author:

Melissa Fay Greene is an award-winning author and journalist whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, the Chicago Tribune, and Newsweek. She is also the author of Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster and the forthcoming There Is No Me Without You (Bloomsbury Press). She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

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