Link: If you were giving an oral history today, what would you say? He also created the “Chicago Radical Jewish Elders Video Project,” now housed at the Spertus Institute in Chicago, which, in 100 oral histories, explored the relationships between political and social consciousness. Rosen retired as a full professor in 1995 and settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. After that, Rosen taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago, training labor leaders as a professor of labor and industrial relations. After two years in the US Army he took a position as education director for the Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO in New York and conducted training programs throughout the country. Rosen received a BA in history at Rutgers University, took a position within the Rutgers University Labor Education department to train union leaders, and then earned a MA in economics there. His desire to be a social activist shaped his career choices. He was raised near New Brunswick, New Jersey with the remnants of the Ferrer Colony, an anarchist community founded by supporters of Francisco Ferrer, a noted European anarchist. He proceeded to talk non-stop for the next two hours.Īs we listened in the darkening room to his progressive philosophy and the drama of a labor organizer of the 20th century, every name and date cried out to speak its own story, and it became clear why it is critically important to understand this history now.įirst, a short bio: Stanley Rosebud Rosen was born on March 2, 1934, in the Bronx, New York City. But she wasn’t sure how much Stan would remember. Sandy explained to me that, as his memory wanes, Stan urgently wants to convey his concern that labor history and the history of unions is not being taught in schools.

Rosen labor archive at the University of Illinois, Chicago Special Collections. A valiant effort on her part-at the Pittsburgh University Library there are 140 linear feet of papers, not including 500 books, and another Stanley R. Stan and I went into the library and his partner Sandra Herzon arrived shortly thereafter with an entire box of books, articles, papers and photographs. The two of them together, both with slightly unkempt hair, looked like brothers-clutching their walkers, they were rocking uproariously with laughter at some reminiscence of history that they shared. I found Stanley Rosen sitting in the lunch room talking with Reuben Hersh, 90, the famous mathematician. New Mexico Jewish Link, Fall, 2018 Stanley Rosebud Rosen Photo © 2018 Diane Joy Schmidt Stanley Rosebud Rosen, This Tumult that Teaches Us

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