71 years after the U. S. Government executed Ethel and Julius Rosenberg on charges of “conspiring to steal the secret of the atomic bomb,” is Ethel Rosenberg finally about to be exonerated?
Robert Meeropol, the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, was six years old in 1953 when his parents were executed. In the 1970s, he and his brother, Michael Meeropol successfully sued the FBI and CIA to force the release of 300,000 previously secret documents about their parents. In 2016 – in the wake of overwhelming new evidence showing that the U.S. government knew Ethel was not a spy and executed her anyway – Robert and his brother launched a nationwide petition campaign asking President Obama to exonerate their mother. The effort garnered 60,000 petition signers, and generated extensive and favorable coverage by many of the most respected and far-reaching media outlets around the U.S. and internationally.
The exoneration campaign succeeded in dramatically moving the needle on the public’s understanding of how the government wronged Ethel, and why, and educated the public about the dangers of unchecked government power, especially in times of heightened concern about national security.
In 2022 Robert, along with his brother Michael, made a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of the National Security Agency (NSA) for classified files in its possession relating to Ethel Rosenberg. The NSA has acknowledged the existence of such files and is considering their declassification and release.
For over 50 years, Robert Meeropol has been a progressive activist, author and public speaker. In 1990, he founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children and served as its Executive Director until he retired from that position when his daughter took over the Fund’s leadership in 2013. Robert remains on the RFC’s Board of Directors.
The RFC is a public foundation that provides for the educational and emotional needs of children in this country whose parents have been harassed, injured, jailed, lost jobs or died in the course of their progressive activities. The Fund also supports youth who have been targeted for their own activism. In its history, the RFC has awarded almost $10 million in grants to benefit thousands of children and youth in this country.
Robert’s memoir, An Execution in the Family, was published by St. Martin’s Press on the 50th anniversary of his parents’ executions. His blog, Still Out on a Limb, is at robertmeeropol.com/blog.