General Support
The Rosenberg Fund for Children provides for the educational and emotional needs of children whose parents have suffered because of their progressive activities and who, therefore, are no longer able to provide fully for their children. The RFC also provides grants for the educational and emotional needs of targeted activist youth. Professionals and institutions will be awarded grants to provide services to beneficiaries.
The RFC was founded by Robert Meeropol, who was orphaned at age six when his parents, Ethel & Julius Rosenberg, were executed at the height of the McCarthy Era.
In 1990 Robert figured out how he could repay the progressive community that helped him survive. He started the RFC to help children of targeted activists in the U.S. today- children who are experiencing the same nightmare he and his brother endured as youngsters. Robert’s daughter Jennifer Meeropol leads the RFC today.
Since its start, the RFC has awarded more than $5.1 million to benefit hundreds of children in the U.S. whose parents have been targeted because of their involvement in progressive movements including the struggles to preserve civil liberties, wage peace, safeguard the environment, combat racism and homophobia, and organize on behalf of workers, prisoners, immigrants and others whose human rights are under threat.
The RFC defines “targeted” as someone who as a result of his or her activism, has: lost a job; suffered physical or mental injury or disability; been harassed or discriminated against; been imprisoned; or died. The RFC defines “progressive activities” as those taken to further any of the following beliefs: all people have equal worth; world peace is a necessity; people are more important than profits; and society must function within ecologically sustainable limits.