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 final numbers are in enabling us to provide an overview of our granting in 2012. But first, at the RFC we never forget that it would be impossible for us to aid any children of targeted activists or targeted activist youth without the generous support of our donors. Thank you.
Associate director, Jenn Meeropol, who will step into my shoes as Executive Director in September, provided the information below.
President Harry S. Truman was famous for the sign on his desk that read, “The buck stops here.” But when it came to my parents’ case this proved just as false as so many other truisms about our government - such as that all citizens be afforded due process before the law, be presumed innocent until proven guilty, or that our constitution’s “separation of powers” would prevent the judicial branch of government from conspiring with the executive branch to speed an execution.
I received the January 2013 issue of the Community Church of Boston’s newsletter this week. This venerable institution is known to this day for the key role it played in organizing against the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti in the 1920’s, and it has remained a progressive force in Boston ever since. The newsletter contained a testament to Sara Sue Koritz, an activist stalwart, who died in December
In November 2011, shortly after the violent government crackdown on the two-month old Occupy Wall Street movement, I blogged here, “It is not surprising that OWS became intolerable to the authorities the movement refused to recognize. Such public naming of capitalism as Public Enemy Number One could not be countenanced. Beatings, tear-gassing, property destruction and thousands of arrests were inevitable, despite the protesters’ heroic non-violence.”
The United States in the only nation in the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition that retains a grand jury system. A grand jury is the prosecutor’s tool for investigating what the government deems to be possible criminal activity. Although it has the power to bring criminal indictments as well as to compel people to testify about their activities and those of others in return for a grant of immunity from prosecution, witnesses are not permitted to have their attorneys accompany them into the grand jury room. A witness who flatly refuses to cooperate or to testify after being granted immunity can