Rosenberg Fund for Children

Background

Rosenberg Fund for Children executive director Jennifer Meeropol is a granddaughter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, an American couple who were convicted of espionage and executed for spying on the United States and delivering strategic technological designs (including designs for nuclear weapons and radar) to the Soviet Union. ²

After the death of his parents, Meeropol’s father, Robert Meeropol, was ostracized from his family and community, allegedly persecuted by the police, and ended up living as an orphan in a shelter until he was taken in by “child-oriented progressive institutions” and was adopted by communists Anne and Abel Meeropol. In 1990, Robert Meeropol founded the RFC to “repay” the “generous individuals whom he never met” who “helped him survive.” ³ As of 2020, he was still the organization’s treasurer. ⁴

On the RFC’s website, Jennifer Meeropol stated, “Now, more than sixty years later, I can sense the same chill winds that wreaked havoc on [my father’s] life and many others, once again sweeping our nation […] In recent years, we have witnessed the most rapid and widespread erosion of our civil liberties since the 1950’s. Those who speak out in opposition to our criminal war abroad and the growing repression at home are condemned as “traitors” and treated as enemies of the state […] These conditions are familiar to anyone who lived through or heard about the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950’s.” ³

Meeropol continued: “Children are suffering right now because their parents have been persecuted in response to their involvement in progressive movements including the struggles to preserve civil liberties, wage peace, safeguard the environment, combat racism and organize on behalf of workers, prisoners and others whose human rights are under threat.” ³

Funding

The Rosenberg Fund for Children provides grants of up to $3,000 per individual per year for individuals under age 18. Grants are targeted toward education, therapy, skills development, or other emotionally supportive activities. ^{5 1}

In the Fall of 2022, the RFC supported 168 children through 86 grants. 20.8 percent of the children had parents involved in environmental advocacy, 16.4 percent were involved in “racial justice,” and 14.4 percent were involved in “human rights.” ⁵

The RFC also provides grants to activist families and 18- to 24-year-olds who have been targeted due to their own activism. ⁵

Grant Recipients

As of 2023, then-recent RFC grant recipients included: a 24 year old Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist who was hit by a police car and arrested for protesting; an 18 year old who was bullied for BLM activism; the daughter of a woman who was fired for organizing a union at a Starbucks; the 15 year old daughter of a woman who was allegedly harassed by police for trying to reallocate the local police budget to fund mental health services; and a pair of 16 and 17 year old brothers whose father “has been hounded by police for decades” due to his racial justice activism. ⁵

In 2020, the RFC gave a $7,000 grant to the Heartland Alliance‘s Marjorie Kovler Center which supports survivors of torture. ⁴

Exonerate Ethel

Jennifer Meeropol and the Rosenberg Fund for Children maintain that Ethel Rosenberg was not a spy but rather a victim, and that the government manufactured a case against her to pressure Julius Rosenberg to cooperate with authorities. ² Michael and Robert Meeropol, the two sons of Ethel and Julius, claim that Ethel was innocent but admit that Julius was a spy, though they deny that he ever gave valid atomic technology information to the Soviet Union. ⁶

In 2016, the RFC launched a campaign encouraging then-President Barack Obama to exonerate Ethel Rosenberg which generated a petition with 60,000 signatures. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote to President Obama to encourage him to investigate the matter, and U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) called for a complete exoneration of Ethel Rosenberg. ²

The RFC launched the Exonerate Ethel campaign during the final days of the Obama presidency because Roy Cohn, one of Donald Trump‘s mentors, was a prominent U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor at the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. ⁷