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.The RFC has begun the final lap of our 20/20/20 marathon. In September 2009 in Albany, NY, we held the first reception of our project to stage 20 events, in 20 cities, over 20 months to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We (usually me and my daughter Jenn, who will take over my duties as Executive Director in a couple of years) have met, thanked and discussed the RFC endeavor with a couple of thousand supporters and new friends since then.
Monday marked our Spring 2011 application deadline. Since we have limited resources and do our best to be a dependable source of multi-year support for the children we aid, it is not unusual for more than 90% of our beneficiaries in any cycle to be those who are already receiving ongoing help. For instance, last fall we welcomed four new families while renewing aid to 65 more.
Actually, I fudged this post’s title a bit. It’s true that my brother’s and my precedent-setting Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in the 1970’s was against the FBI, the Attorney General and other government agencies. However the “other Meeropol” I mention is my daughter Rachel, and the fudge is that she isn’t a plaintiff against the government.
Recently, I’ve seen several Op Ed pieces and letters to the editor by teachers expressing dismay at the extent of the hostility that has been directed at them during the course of the current debate over “reforming” public education. While I share their concern that a lot of these attacks appear unwarranted and camouflage a right-wing agenda to gut public education and destroy teachers’ unions, I am even more concerned that the teaching profession is far from the only one that has come in for such vilification.
Two weeks ago, just before I left for vacation, I received a book in the mail with the following inscription: “The author’s profits from this book will be given to the Rosenberg Fund for Children.”
The book, entitled, This American Family: Growing up as a Red Diaper Baby, is a memoir of the childhood of author Chris Christie. I read it last week, while taking a break from New England’s snow and cold in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.