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.
Last summer the RFC lost a founding member of the Board and a dear friend when Bruce Miller died after a battle with cancer. Bruce served on the Board for more than 30 years, from 1990 until his death. He was also a treasured family friend. I met Bruce, his wife Jane and their girls more than 40 years ago. I started babysitting for their daughters when they were three and six years old and I was 12 or 13. Our families vacationed together and often gathered to celebrate holidays and birthdays. When I described our relationship to friends, I often used the expressions “friends who are family” or “chosen family” and that’s absolutely who they were to me.
In the late summer of 2024 as the RFC staff discussed the possible re-launch of the Exoneration effort, we realized that we’d probably require some administrative assistance to continue serving our beneficiary community and keeping in touch with our donors while promoting the effort to exonerate my grandmother. We drafted a job description for a part-time administrative assistant and were very fortunate to find a friend of a current staff member who had the skills we needed and was open to some additional part-time work. Meet Sonya, the newest member of the RFC team.
Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern addressed the House floor on February 10, 2025. A key ally in the effort to clear Ethel Rosenberg's good name, the Representative issued an apology to Ethel's family after President Biden failed to do so before leaving office in January. Below is a transcript of the speech...
I've been thinking a lot recently about January 2017, right after the U.S. presidential elections, when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric was on the rise nationwide. Trump had just imposed a travel ban against foreign nationals from several majority-Muslim nations. The mood in my town was tense. Some neighbors, friends, and I organized a group to talk to our local elected leaders on the town council. We used personal stories to urge our councilors to designate the town as a sanctuary city. We were worried that our Muslim neighbors and immigrant residents may be targeted by the rising hostility.
I was surprised by how disappointed I was when President Biden left office without acting on our request that he exonerate my grandmother, Ethel Roseberg. Despite keeping my expectations low and reminding myself that it was unlikely he would actually issue a statement exonerating Ethel, I got caught up in the thrill of news stories and television coverage supporting our campaign and by the surging number of petition signers and the hundreds of email message supporters sent to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.