This Thurs. Jan 26th, 2023 at 12pm (Central), the Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum will host a hybrid event, "President Eisenhower’s Decision Concerning the Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg."
Joining as the featured guest speaker will be Dr. Lori Clune, author of "Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in a Cold War World" and associate Professor of History at California State University, Fresno.
Today’s #RosenbergMOTD features the inclusion of ETHEL ROSENBERG: An American Tragedy, by Anne Sebba. (St. Martin’s Griffin, 336 pp., $18.99) in the NYTimes’ “New in Paperback” feature. According to the article, “Sebba’s account is the first biography in 30 years to focus individually on Ethel Rosenberg, who was famously executed along with her husband, Julius...in June 1953.”
Rosenberg Mention of the Day: Anne Sebba, the author of "Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy" has published a Q&A this week in the lead-up to her biography's paperback edition release in the UK. It's a fascinating read on how her life's journey led her to become an acclaimed, feminist biographer.
On this day, April 5, 1951, Federal Judge Irving R. Kaufman sentenced Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to death, one week after a jury convicted them of conspiracy to commit espionage.
In his sentencing speech, Judge Kaufman said, "I consider your crimes worse than murder" and that the Rosenbergs' "love for their cause dominated their lives – it was even greater than their love for their children.”
On this day: March 29, 1951 Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage.
Last year on the 70th anniversary of the conviction, RFC Founder Robert Meeropol shared his thoughts for Emily Tamkin's New Statesman article on the case. This important piece focuses on what the Rosenbergs' convictions expose about the U.S.'s longstanding history of committing injustices in the name of national security.
Today’s Rosenberg Mention of the Day highlights the more controversial work of pop artist Andy Warhol.
“The world loves Andy's bright and easily-digestible pop art, but there is a much darker side to his portfolio that many have never been exposed to. For our first example, let's take a look at Electric Chair, a project that Andy worked on as a response to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg ... Although empty of anything except the chair, the image is haunting, to say the least.”
Rosenberg Mention of the Day // A new podcast episode of "Now What?" with Carole Zimmer features Michael Meeropol, older son to Julius and Ethel, to discuss his parents and his childhood. The show hosts "conversations with extraordinary people about their lives and how they navigate all the bumps in the road."
This episode is available now on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher and online here: bit.ly/3BnRXEu
Congratulations to Anne Sebba: her biography of Ethel Rosenberg was just short listed for the 2022 Wingate Literary Prize!
The UK-based honor “is awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.”
The winner will be announced February 16th; good luck to Anne Sebba! Learn more about the prize and the other finalists at https://www.thejc.com/news/news/wingate-literary-prize-short-list-relea…
Rosenberg Mention of the Day: A review of Anne Sebba’s biography by Martha Sonnenberg that “must, of necessity, begin with a personal note..."
"When I was 13 years old, my mother took, from the deep recesses of her chest of drawers, a copy of The Death House Letters of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg:
"(1) We sat down together on our sofa, and we went through the letters. She told me how the Rosenbergs had been executed, by electric chair, in 1953, being accused of giving secret information to Russia.
Rosenberg Mention of the Day: Sharing Foreign Affair's latest review of "Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy", a brief statement acknowledging that prejudice (misogyny, antisemitism, anti-communism) obstructed justice for Ethel and led to her eventual execution. (While we’ve known the truth of the review’s concluding sentence for years, it’s still shocking to read it in a preeminent establishment publication...)