In what has become an annual 4th of July tradition, we’re sharing this remarkable alternative "National Anthem: Arise Arise" by activist artist and RFC friend, Jean Rohe. It's gorgeous and hits on so many topics, so gracefully… We love to imagine stadiums of people rising to sing an anthem that references "Strange Fruit" and the electric chair and back alley abortions and slavery and class issues and everything else this gorgeous song explores. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1iC1zt24A

Now available to stream: "The Rosenberg Case 70 Years Later: Fighting Fascism Then and Now"

For folks who missed either of our live screenings in June 2023 (or would like to rewatch or share it), our short film is now available!

Watch the film here: www.rfc.org/70th

Today's #RosenbergMOTD is this excellent essay by Paul Von Blum in Truthdig, which begins, "On that June 19th evening in 1953, I was a small kid in a suburb of Philadelphia, concerned above all with baseball, when I noticed that something had made my parents very upset. When I asked them what was wrong, they informed me that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had been killed in the electric chair, in a place called Sing Sing in New York, and that it was a horrible injustice. I had never before heard of the Rosenbergs or Sing Sing.

BREAKING: Rosenberg sons Michael and Robert Meeropol call on Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to direct the NSA and the National Archives to declassify hundreds of thousands of pages pertaining to their mother, Ethel Rosenberg.

The Rosenbergs were convicted of "conspiracy to commit espionage" and were executed 70 years ago on June 19th, 1953.

Thank you to Renée Graham of the Boston Globe for this thoughtful tribute to the late, great Harry Belafonte. We loved this sentiment and are honored for our organization to be counted among the humanitarian causes he supported:

Graham writes, "Often, you can measure the impact and reach of a person’s life by the variety of those who mourn their passing.

Earlier this month marked Paul Robeson's 125th birthday. Robeson was a fierce civil rights and antifascist activist, musician and a supporter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (he even participated in a rally to save the Rosenbergs in 1953).

According to The Progressive, even the words inscribed on his tombstone encapsulate his passion and resistance. They read, "The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."

Happy birthday to a human rights legend.

Today's Rosenberg Mention of the Day comes from Washington, D.C. where the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will present a free, one-night-only reading of "Angels in America" on Monday, April 17.

Among the many vignettes in the play is the famous scene of the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg visiting Roy Cohn, the man who "sent her to the electric chair." In an act of compassion, she calls an ambulance for him when he is close to death.

The RFC's spring newsletter is here! This issue is especially packed with news and updates as June 19th will mark 70 years since the Rosenbergs' executions. The RFC will be commemorating the anniversary with a virtual program, "The Rosenberg Case 70 Years Later: Fighting Fascism Then and Now" - and tickets are available now.

In our newsletter, you can also read an update from the RFC's Founder, Robert Meeropol, about the recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filing with the NSA for materials concerning Ethel Rosenberg, the latest news about the RFC's granting, and more.

Book Riot issued a list of 8 contemporary Jewish fiction books, and among them is "Ethel's Song: Ethel Rosenberg's Life in Poems," a collection written for teenaged readers by Barbara Krasner. (You can check out the other recommended reading from the list here: https://bookriot.com/jewish-contemporary-fiction-books/)

On this day, February 23, 1868, civil rights activist, author and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois was born.

Du Bois was a public supporter of the effort to save Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. He spoke at the "Save the Rosenbergs Rally" (1952) in NYC and read a prayer at their funeral after efforts to stop the execution proved unsuccessful.

The young sons of the Rosenbergs, Robert and Michael, met their soon-to-be adoptive parents, Abel and Anne Meeropol, for the first time at a holiday party thrown by the Du Bois’s in their Brooklyn brownstone in December of 1953.