Free Republic

Aaron Katz, who for more than 50 years relentlessly and publicly sought the exoneration of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the central figures in the nation’s most controversial spying case, died on Sept. 28 in Venice, Fla. He was 92 and lived in North Port, Fla. The death was confirmed by his wife, Cynthia. Mr. Katz was director of the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case for 42 years, repeatedly leading demonstrations outside the federal courthouse on Foley Square in Manhattan on the anniversary of the couple’s execution in Sing Sing’s electric chair on June 19, 1953. They had been...

It is hard to imagine a sadder group of people than the children of Americans who spied for the Soviet Union. I am thinking of the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the son of Alger Hiss, and now Harry Dexter White’s two daughters, who in a recent letter to the New York Times Book Review rebuke a reviewer for referring to their father, a high-ranking Treasury official under Roosevelt and Truman, as a Soviet agent. What a tragedy the end of the Cold War has been for the kids and grandkids of the spies. How do they talk...

Fifty years ago last night, the government of the United States executed two of the most contemptible figures of the Cold War, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. And exactly fifty years later - that is, last night - the leftovers of the Cold War's losing side gathered, to wage the latest round of a decades-long struggle to exonerate their dead. A 'major cultural program' to commemorate the Rosenbergs was held in New York City's City Center. Michael and Robert Meeropol, the Rosenbergs' two sons, were the star attraction; an array of accompanying leftists played backup. Anti-war profiteer Susan Sarandon was there....

Jennifer S. Altman New York Times Tony Kushner, left, E. L. Doctorow and Thane Rosenbaum watching a scene from the HBO version of Mr. Kushner's play "Angels in America." The discussion was supposed to be about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, ... E. L. Doctorow was there, ... So was Tony Kushner, who placed the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg at the deathbed of her prosecutor Roy Cohn in his Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Angels in America." snip "Do artists worry about getting it right at all?" asked Thane Rosenbaum, a novelist and law professor who served as the evening's moderator. "Is...

One "plaintiff" in the nuisance lawsuits being filed against the Director of the NSA et al is none other than the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg -- Rachel Meeropol.Lest we forget, the Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 for helping to pass US atom bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. (Most fittingly, Julius's KGB nom de guerre was "Liberal.")True to her roots, Rachel is a Vice President of the New York City chapter of the communist National Lawyers Guild. She is also a fixture in some of the most ultra left organizations out there, such as The Children Of Resistance.Of...

Will any reporter, any editor or the publisher of The New York Times be prosecuted for transmitting information relating to the national defense, specifically, that the United States government secretly monitored telephone calls from Al Quaeda operatives or suspected Al Quaeda operatives from outside the United States to the United States after September 11, 2001? And, if there is a prosecution and a conviction, should the penalty be greater because President Bush specifically urged The New York Times not to do, for obvious national security purposes, and The New York Times suddenly published the information more than a year after...

...[T]here is no greater Cold War icon than Alger Hiss, the once high-ranking State Department official who went to prison for denying that he'd passed government secrets to the Soviet Union. Nearly 60 years after he was exposed before Congress by Whittaker Chambers, a communist underground operative who later became a senior editor at Time magazine, belief in Hiss' complete innocence remains an article of faith for the political left. For anti-communists, Hiss remains the prime example of how the Kremlin infiltrated the highest ranks of the U.S. government.... Over the years, Davis remained unpersuaded by new evidence of Hiss'...

Last week Robert Meeropol visited the University of Maryland to excoriate the United States’ War on Terrorism. Don’t fret if the name doesn’t ring a bell. Meeropol isn’t a mainstream figure in American politics, academia or the arts. His opinion was sought not for any particular experience or expertise he can bring to the subject. Meeropol was selected for the forum on a more superficial basis: His parents were Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the American Communist Party members turned Soviet spies who were executed for helping Soviets acquire the secrets of the atom bomb.Meeropol (he took the name of the...

A little bit of embarrassment seems to be in order: An article in Sunday's L.A. Times Calendar section (seems to be unavailable unless you're a subscriber) reports on a new documentary about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg ("an exceptional documentary, short-listed for this year's Academy Award, a compelling emotional narrative laced with explosive political material"), who were convicted in the 1950s of spying for the Soviets, and executed for it. The documentary was directed by their granddaughter, Ivy Meeropol. The article is not by any means entirely pro-Rosenberg, but I was still struck by the second paragraph below: But what...

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer PARK CITY, Utah - Few filmmakers examining their family history in a documentary would find themselves in the thick of the Academy Awards (news - web sites) race. When your grandparents are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, though, the subject resonates far outside the immediate family. Ivy Meeropol's "Heir to an Execution" chronicles her effort to come to terms with the lives and deaths of her father's parents, executed as traitors in 1953 after being accused of relaying the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviets. "I grew up with this. It was always...

Julius & Ethel Rosenberg: A Son's Desperate Search for Innocence Discovers Anything But Book Review 'An Execution in the Family': Faithful Son of the Rosenbergs Reviewed By DOROTHY GALLAGHER One Son's Journey By Robert Meeropol. Illustrated. 273 pp. New York: St. Martin's Press. $25.95. Here we are, a half-century on since the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs are truly historical figures now, but for a small fraction of the population their fate still has the power to generate yesterday's heat. Were the Rosenbergs framed? Did they do anything? If they did do anything, was it anything much?...

Here we are, a half-century on since the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs are truly historical figures now, but for a small fraction of the population their fate still has the power to generate yesterday's heat. Were the Rosenbergs framed? Did they do anything? If they did do anything, was it anything much? Robert Meeropol, the younger son of the Rosenbergs, has lived his life close to home -- that is, among people who believed his parents were innocents, martyrs to a government bent not on catching Soviet spies but on crushing political dissent. Given the evidence...

On June 19, 1953, as the Yankees were playing the Chicago White Sox in Yankee Stadium, not too many miles "up the river", 2,000 volts of electricity was surging through the bodies of liberal left-wing traitors, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The question on this 50th anniversary of the Rosenbergs punishment is "Who did more damage to US national security - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, or Bill and Hillary Clinton? The stench of ammonia saturated the air. Ammonia and death. Before the three jolts of electricity killed him, Julius had urinated involuntarily and now the guard was mopping the floor and...