“My daughter studied the KKK at school... she is not only worried about the government repression [for my organizing] but about the possibility of racist physical attacks against us as well.”

A few weeks ago I received an email from a former RFC beneficiary who I’ve stayed in touch with over the years. She contacted me to respond to the blogs my dad and I wrote about our thoughts on the current immigration crisis and family separations. She shared updates about her family, her thoughts on the blogs and sent me the link to her recent post on the topic.

My mother, Ellen Meeropol, calls herself "a literary late bloomer.” After careers in art and medicine, she started seriously writing fiction eighteen years ago when she was well into her 50s, and has had three novels published in the past six years. Her books explore themes that are likely familiar to many Rosenberg Fund for Children grantees and supporters. As her website notes:

We just finished awarding over $190,000 in grants for the first half of 2017. In addition to the four new beneficiaries discussed in my previous blog , three more new families have joined the RFC community this spring. These new grantees include:

We’re in the midst of awarding our first grants of 2017 at the RFC. To date, four new grantees have joined the RFC community this spring and additional new applications are pending. So far, the new grantees include:

Radical attorney and former political prisoner Lynne Stewart died Tuesday, March 7th at the age of 77 following an extended battle with cancer. In her lengthy career, this “people’s lawyer” defended Black Panthers, Weather Underground members and other outsiders. As Lynne explained in a 2015 interview with Guernica, "I'm particularly committed to the political people who needed defense. They're out there fighting the government on behalf of everybody."

In the fall of 2015 four new families received their first RFC grants. Including the seven new recipients in the spring, almost a dozen families and targeted activist youth joined the RFC community last year. With the $370,000 we awarded in 2015, our total granted since our founding has reached almost $6 million!

The new beneficiaries include:

My name is Jacob Rivas, I’m a graduate of Oberlin College and a proud grant recipient of the Rosenberg Fund For Children. I’d like to share my story to thank the RFC for everything they’ve done for me and recognize what they continue to do for others.

We just completed awarding our first grants of 2015 at the RFC. In all, seven new grantees joined the RFC community this spring (five families, one targeted activist youth and one group). The new grantees include:

I’ve always been an avid reader, especially of literary fiction. While I enjoy escaping into a fun novel, most of my favorite books are anything but frivolous reads. Instead, they tend to fall into the category of political fiction, exploring how people deal with forces that are often beyond their control and require them to confront dilemmas with no easy solutions.