Jacob M. Rothschild

Jacob Mortimer "Jack" Rothschild (1911–1973) was a Reform Jewish rabbi and civil rights activist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1932 and Hebrew Union College in 1936. After working in Davenport, Iowa and Temple Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh, he became a rabbi at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple in Atlanta, Georgia in 1946. An associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and an advocate of racial integration, Rothschild was one of the authors of the Ministers' Manifesto in 1957. In 1958, in response to the manifesto, a terrorist bombing was carried out in his synagogue. He was an advocate for Atlanta to honor MLK in 1964.[1][2][3][4] His family was also harassed and threatened.[5] He introduced King at several banquets in 1963.[6] He and King had become friends, and Rothschild later would deliver a eulogy for King. In 1967, Rothschild confronted King about antisemitic comments made by Hosea Williams in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.[7] After Brown v. Board of Education, Rothschild became an advocate for school desegregation. He became an interfaith leader who reached out to the Christian community.[8][9]

Rothschild's active role in the struggle for racial equality was supported by a significant number of his congregants.[10] The bombing ripped the delicate social fabric of Atlanta, which called itself the "city too busy to hate,"[11] although it also elicited widespread support for Rothschild and the Temple from Jewish and non-Jewish Atlantans alike.[10] By early November 1958, the Temple had received over $12,000 in donations to its rebuilding fund.[12]

He died of a heart attack.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Rothschild, Jacob M." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Retrieved 2026-02-28 – via Encyclopedia.com.
  2. ^ "Jacob Rothschild". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2026-02-28.
  3. ^ Ladinsky, Kaylene (2020-06-19). "Rothschild Helped Lay Path for Today's Activist Rabbis". Atlanta Jewish Times. Retrieved 2026-02-28.
  4. ^ "Ministers' Manifesto". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2026-03-04.
  5. ^ a b "Rabbi Dies". Reading Eagle. January 2, 1974.
  6. ^ Bauman, Mark K.; Kalin, Berkley (1997-11-30). The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, 1880s to 1990s. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0892-6.
  7. ^ "Rothschild, Jacob Mortimer". The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University. Retrieved 2026-02-28.
  8. ^ Sahar, Lee (2024-01-24). "From the Archives: Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild and the Civil Rights Movement". Atlanta History Center. Retrieved 2026-02-28.
  9. ^ Blumberg, Janice Rothschild (1985). One voice: Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild and the troubled South. Macon, [Ga.]: Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-150-4.
  10. ^ a b Frederick M. Binder (June 1999). "Review of The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, 1880s to 1990s. by Mark K. Bauman; Berkley Kalin; Struggles in the Promised Land: Toward a History of Black-Jewish Relations in the United States. by Jack Salzman; Cornel West". The Journal of American History. 86 (1): 312–4. doi:10.2307/2567542. JSTOR 2567542. Of the twelve rabbis whose stories are told, James A. Wax in Memphis, Tennessee, Charles Mantinband in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Perry Nussbaum in Jackson, Mississippi, and Jacob Rothschild in Atlanta, Georgia, forsook the cautious approach and openly and effectively engaged in the struggle for black civil rights. ... ... the 1958 dynamiting of the temple in Atlanta resulted in wide support from both within and without the Jewish community, which for the temple's members 'finally exorcized the lingering trauma engendered more than forty years before by the trial and lynching of Leo Frank'(subscription required)
  11. ^ Virginia H. Hein (1972). "The Image of "A City Too Busy to Hate": Atlanta in the 1960s". Phylon. 33 (3): 205–221. doi:10.2307/273521. JSTOR 273521.(subscription required)
  12. ^ "Atlanta's Fox Theater Evacuated After Bomb Threat is Received". Ocala Star-Banner. November 3, 1958.
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