News & Events

From the Executive Director

From the Executive Director
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.
 
 

I suppose the RFC is doing as well as, if not better, than one would expect in the midst of the Great Recession (funny the way there is such a resistance to using the “d” word!). Our tremendously loyal and committed supporters have come through repeatedly with thousands upon thousands of modest donations, mostly ranging between $25 and $100. But I’m primarily attuned to our beneficiaries’ needs, and so end up seeing the glass as a quarter empty instead of three-quarters full.

Many of you may have seen the national press coverage of a recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Mumia abu-Jamal. As members of the RFC community you probably know I have been involved in the effort to save Mumia’s life since the mid 1990’s. I consider him the first political prisoner to face execution in the United States since my parents. I wrote about his case in my book, An Execution in the Family, starting on page 227.

Part 1

Have you ever had an event trigger an understanding of something you thought you already knew, but apparently did not grasp fully? That’s the way I felt on January 20th, the morning after Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts special senatorial election on January 19th. Then I had my face rubbed in it by the Supreme Court’s decision giving corporations even greater power over what is left of our feeble democratic process.