One of the most defin­ing moments in Jew­ish his­to­ry was the destruc­tion of the Sec­ond Tem­ple in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE. This event and its many reper­cus­sions was a major fac­tor in the devel­op­ment of the his­to­ry, soci­ol­o­gy and cul­ture of the Jew­ish peo­ple of today. Annu­al­ly, on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av and on the three weeks pre­ced­ing it, we com­mem­o­rate this time in a reli­gious con­text but it is not often that mod­ern stu­dents have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to study in depth the events of those weeks from a his­toric per­spec­tive, par­tic­u­lar­ly because Av falls dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son when day schools and reli­gious schools are on hia­tus, there­fore much for­mal edu­ca­tion takes a break. 

This book may be a resource that helps fill the gap. It presents a back­ground of time, place and cast of char­ac­ters, both Roman lead­ers and armies and the Jew­ish sects of the peri­od. It also presents archae­o­log­i­cal finds which are exam­ined to shed light on the his­tor­i­cal events. Time­lines, source notes, illus­tra­tions and maps help expli­cate and illus­trate. The Roman siege and destruc­tion of Jerusalem are pre­sent­ed chrono­log­i­cal­ly accord­ing to the Hebrew cal­en­dar. Back mat­ter includes a bib­li­og­ra­phy of clas­si­cal sources, a bib­li­og­ra­phy of mod­ern sources and a recon­struct­ed map of the time with a key to points of inter­est. This is an inter­est­ing pre­sen­ta­tion of high­ly sig­nif­i­cant piece of Jew­ish his­to­ry which is often giv­en edu­ca­tion­al short shrift and is rec­om­mend­ed for ages 13 and up.