page_title: Robert Meeropol
section_title: Activism and career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Meeropol / Activism and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Robert Meeropol speaking in Seattle, Washington at a fundraiser of the Rosenberg Fund for Children. He is holding a copy of Government Exhibit 8 from the Rosenberg trial, the cross-sectional drawing of an atomic bomb, which was said to be the "secret of the atomic bomb" they had passed to the Soviet Union.
context_page_description: Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Meeropol was born in New York City. His father Julius was an electrical engineer and a member of the Communist Party. His mother Ethel, a union organizer, was also active in the Communist Party.
  In 1953, when Robert was six years old, his parents were convicted and executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, and specifically for passing secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
context_section_description: In the 1960s and 1970s, Meeropol became active in the anti-war effort. After completing his master's degree, Meeropol taught anthropology at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1971 to 1973.
  With his brother, Meeropol sued the FBI and CIA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), winning the release of 300,000 previously secret documents pertaining to their parents' case. Believing the documents proved their parents' innocence, the Meeropol brothers co-wrote a 1975 book about their childhood. From 1974 to 1978, he worked actively with the National Committee to reopen the Rosenberg Case and the Fund for Open Information and Accountability.
  From 1980 to 1982 he was managing editor of Socialist Review in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time, his parents' executioner, Joseph Francel, died. In 1982 Meeropol moved back to Massachusetts. He returned to school, studying at the Western New England College School of Law, from which he received his J.D. degree in 1985. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar and began practice as an attorney.
  In 1990, Meeropol started the Rosenberg Fund for Children, a public foundation which provides support for children in the U.S. whose parents are targeted, progressive activists. The RFC also supports youth in the U.S. who have been targeted for their own progressive activism. He stepped down from the position of Executive Director of RFC on September 1, 2013, to be succeeded by his daughter Jennifer.
  In 2003 he wrote a memoir that reflected on his life and his parents' fate.
caption: Robert Meeropol (2009) holding copy of Government Exhibit 8 from the Rosenberg trial, the cross-sectional drawing of an atomic bomb, which was said to be the "secret of the atomic bomb" the Rosenbergs had passed to the Soviet Union.
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