The sixth book by Bankole Thompson, titled HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear, hit shelves in May 2026.
Nationally acclaimed journalist and author brings his continuing moral inquiry on hope, human dignity and the American conscience to Jewish Detroit
DETROIT, MI, UNITED STATES, September 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — On Tuesday, October 13, nationally recognized journalist, author and public intellectual Bankole Thompson will make his inaugural visit to Detroit’s Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue for a special discussion centered on his newest release, HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear, as well as the life and enduring impact of the late Jewish leader Samantha Woll.
This gathering is organized by the Samantha Woll Center for Jewish Detroit, housed inside the synagogue and named after Woll—a highly regarded Detroit Jewish figure and former synagogue president whose tragic death in 2023 sent shockwaves across Michigan and beyond.
Woll’s legacy is prominently featured in HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear. Her parents, Dr. Douglas and Margo Woll, contributed an essay to the volume reflecting on their daughter’s life, values and dedication to humanity. Both physicians, the Wolls have developed a profound respect for Thompson and have spoken warmly of his work and his engagement with issues of conscience, justice and human dignity.
As a result, the October event will go beyond a typical author talk. Thompson will explore the core moral themes of HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear while also reflecting on Samantha Woll’s life and the lessons her example offers to communities grappling with grief, division and an increasingly polarized public sphere.
“This gathering is ultimately about the kind of hope that refuses to surrender to fear,” Thompson said. “Samantha Woll’s life reminds us that our deepest obligations to one another transcend the boundaries that too often separate us. To discuss HOPE in a center bearing her name carries profound meaning.”
This synagogue appearance is the latest in a notable series of invitations that have placed Thompson before diverse religious, civic and generational audiences to tackle questions of hope, justice and the human experience.
In June, Thompson spoke at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, where he engaged his first Catholic audience on HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear during a talk titled “Pilgrims of Hope in an Age of Fear.”
Then, on August 25, Thompson was chosen to deliver the eulogy for Dr. William G. Anderson, the legendary 98-year-old civil rights leader, pioneering Black physician, and founder and president of the Albany Movement in Georgia, who worked alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That invitation placed the 47-year-old Thompson in the significant role of articulating the life and moral testimony of one of the King-era movement’s towering figures for a new generation.
Taken together, the Catholic appearance, the Anderson eulogy and now Thompson’s first visit to the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue highlight the expanding reach of his work as a prominent voice on the American experiment. For more than two decades, his journalism, books and public addresses have scrutinized power while exploring democracy, racial and economic justice, and the moral value of every human being.
Released in May, HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear treats hope not as sentiment or easy optimism, but as a moral response to poverty, inequality, illness, homelessness, mental health struggles, threats to democracy and the broader crises facing human dignity. The book includes a foreword by Sister Simone Campbell, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and nationally prominent Catholic social justice leader.
This appearance also comes as Thompson prepares his upcoming seventh book, scheduled for 2027, titled Bankole Thompson’s 12 Moral Questions: Frederick Douglass and the Soul of America at 250—an examination of democracy, truth, racial and economic justice, human dignity, leadership and the moral duties confronting the United States on its 250th anniversary. With Frederick Douglass serving as a central moral voice, the book extends an inquiry that has increasingly defined Thompson’s work: not simply what America has become, but what kind of nation it is morally prepared to become.
The October 13 gathering will bring these intersecting questions into one of Detroit’s key Jewish spaces while honoring a young Jewish leader whose life embodied the possibility of building bridges across communities.
For Thompson, this appearance marks another chapter in an expanding public conversation across books, journalism, faith traditions and generations around a question that reaches beyond any single community: What does hope demand of us when fear, loss and division would have us retreat from one another?
BANKOLE THOMPSON
The PuLSE Institute
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