On this day in 1958, at 3:30 in the morning, neighbors of Atlanta’s Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple, also known as the Temple, awoke to a loud explosion. Fifty sticks of dynamite placed at the Temple’s northern entrance caused nearly $100,000 in damage to the building.
Thirty minutes later, a group of white supremacists calling themselves the Confederate Underground claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the United Press. Members of the Temple suspected that the attack was in retaliation for the activism of its senior rabbi, Jacob Rothschild, an outspoken proponent of racial equality.
Fortunately, civic leaders, reporters, and religious leaders alike flocked to support the Jewish community of Atlanta following the bombing. Even President Eisenhower released a statement denouncing the attack. Few, however, spoke as eloquently about the bombing as Ralph McGill, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution, who wrote, “When the wounds of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe.”
For the most part, 20th Century American Jews embraced McGill’s charge, making opposition to hatred in all its forms a paramount concern of the American Jewish community. As we once again find the flames of hatred being fanned across America, the Temple bombing begs us to remember our sacred duty to embrace the stranger and to shun hatred everywhere it can be found.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel