Will you help our campaign to exonerate our mother, Ethel Rosenberg?
We have embarked on a campaign (run by the Rosenberg Fund for Children), to get President Obama to exonerate our mother, Ethel Rosenberg, before he leaves office. There is damning new evidence showing the government knew she was not a spy, and executed her anyway. We have a very strong case, but we need help:
- Will you sign the petition for exoneration at www.rfc.org/ethel?
- Will you use your email or social media networks to encourage others to join you in signing and sharing the campaign?
- Will you send a photo to exonerate@rfc.org of yourself holding this sign (or one of your own making), for us to use in publicizing the campaign?
- Will you send a statement to exonerate@rfc.org about your support for this effort, for us to use in the publicity for the campaign?
Here’s a brief background:
Last summer, previously secret government material at the heart of the case against our parents, was made public after the National Security Archive successfully sued for its release. This material - the transcript of the sworn, grand jury testimony of David Greenglass (our mother’s brother, and the chief prosecution witness against her) - demonstrates that the government knowingly manufactured the case against our mother, to pressure our father to cooperate.
Last July, the grand jury release made international headlines, with story after story calling our mother’s conviction and execution into question. Shortly thereafter, we published an Op-Ed in The New York Times calling for her exoneration and got tremendous public support for the idea.
On what would have been our mother’s 100th birthday last September, Members of the City Council in New York issued a proclamation stating our mother’s execution was “wrongful ,” and the Manhattan Borough President declared it “Ethel Rosenberg Day of Justice in the Borough of Manhattan.” These actions by government officials in the largest city in this country - where our parents lived all their lives until their arrests, and where their trial took place - demonstrates the growing recognition that my mother’s conviction was a travesty.
Over the winter, a major news outlet began working on a story that should be forthcoming later this year, interviewing us about the miscarriage of justice in our parents’ case.
And this spring, we launched our petition at www.rfc.org/ethel calling on President Obama to formally exonerate my mother before he leaves office. We hope you will help this campaign grow.
The time is right to do this not only because of glaring new evidence that the government knew our mother was not a spy and executed her anyway. It’s also essential because we’re witnessing a horrifying resurgence of the same kind of attacks that McCarthy and Hoover engaged in - only now, it’s aimed at Muslims, immigrants, and transgender people; as well as Black Lives Matter organizers, environmental activists, and others challenging our broken system.
We require a government that is just, humane, and accountable...at this moment in history more than ever.
Please sign the petition at www.rfc.org/ethel and contact us at exonerate@rfc.org if you're willing to help with any of the other requests above.
We would be so grateful for your support.
Sincerely,
Robert & Michael Meeropol