Jennifer Meeropol is the granddaughter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and the daughter of RFC Founder, Robert Meeropol. Jenn became the Executive Director of the RFC on September 1, 2013. Prior posts on this page were written by Robert (unless otherwise noted), and represent his opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the RFC.
Guest blog by RFC Founder Robert Meeropol
Six years ago I posted a blog on the RFC website entitled “Strange Convergence” (available here). In it I compared details of the life of my mother, Ethel Rosenberg, to that of Billie Holiday, the singer who made Abel Meeropol’s song, “Strange Fruit,” famous. Ethel and Billie appeared to be an unlikely couple. However, they were both born in poverty in 1915, had excellent singing voices, although Billie’s surpassed Ethel’s, and were precocious. Ethel graduated high school at 15 and helped lead a victorious strike at 19, while Billie sang in Harlem clubs at 17, and was a successful recording artist by 20. And they both got in trouble with the law, which led to their untimely deaths. Finally, there’s the Abel Meeropol connection; Abel adopted Ethel’s children and wrote Billie’s most famous song.
RFC staff are continuing to work remotely and our office remains closed indefinitely. To make it easier for our community to contact us, we've set up temporary phone numbers: please call 508-275-2258 for all granting inquiries and 413-239-2711 for all other questions.
You can also reach us via email (all granting and application questions can be directed to Tori at granting@rfc.org; press inquiries and donation or general questions to Rachel at info@rfc.org and our Executive Director Jenn can be reached at jenn@rfc.org).
This has felt like the longest, most monumental election of my lifetime. While I am enormously grateful that Trump was defeated, the level of support for him and his hateful, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic, anti-science policies shows how much remains to be done to create a more just and equitable society. The impact of these policies will linger into 2021 and beyond despite the election results.
My wife’s fourth novel, Her Sister’s Tattoo, was published in April. It’s the story of Esther and Rosa, whose arrests during an anti-Vietnam War protest tear the sisters apart. It’s fiction, but it hits close to home.
While we wish we could have safely gathered together to celebrate the RFC's 30th anniversary in 2020, we were thrilled to be able to offer a virtual program to mark this milestone. The five videos that form the discussion were taped on Saturday, May 9th, 2020 via Zoom, bringing together participants in South America as well as the east and west coasts of the United States to discuss inter-generational activism, repression, local and global community, and where to find inspiration in difficult times as well music and poetry from activist artists. Watch the series of videos and learn about the artists and activists who participated in this virtual celebration.