U.S. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, along with eight other senators, has sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish a national monument in honor of Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools.
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Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish American entrepreneur and philanthropist, became a prominent figure when he took over Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 1903. He would eventually create the Rosenwald Fund, a significant initiative that contributed millions of dollars in matching funds to advance vocational and technical education.
In the letter dated March 19, the senators underscored the transformative impact of Rosenwald’s philanthropy on African American education in the South and its broader societal significance. They emphasized the importance of elevating the story, people, and institutions involved in this historic change through the creation of a national monument.
The senators outlined three potential sites for the National Monument, including the San Domingo Rosenwald School in Wicomico County, Md., Rosenwald’s boyhood home in Springfield, Ill., and an easement on the Nichols Tower in the former Sears, Roebuck and Company merchandising plant in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.
In addition to commemorating Rosenwald’s life and legacy, the senators stressed that the national monument would acknowledge the profound impact of Rosenwald Schools in the segregated South, highlight early Black-Jewish partnerships, and recognize philanthropy’s role in shaping American society. They underscored the monument’s tribute to education as an equalizing force in the nation, quoting Rosenwald’s own words: “I do not see how America can go forward if part of its people are left behind.”
Signatories to the letter included U.S. Senators Cory Booker, D-N.J., Ben Cardin, D-Md., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
The film, ‘Rosenwald,’ tells story of Jewish philanthropist
In 2015, the film “Rosenwald,” debuted and was featured at the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. It detailed Julius Rosenwald’s life story.
The son of an immigrant peddler who never finished high school, he rose to become the president of Sears. Influenced by the writings of the educator Booker T. Washington, this Jewish philanthropist joined forces with African American communities during the Jim Crow South to build 5,300 schools, providing 660,000 black children with access to education in the segregated American South.
Inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah and tikkun olam and a deep concern over racial inequality in America, Rosenwald used his wealth to become one of America’s most effective philanthropists.
This documentary, from award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner (“The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg,” “Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg,” “Partisans of Vilna”), reveals Rosenwald as a silent partner of the pre-Civil Rights Movement.
Recipients of Julius Rosenwald’s seminal Rosenwald Fund for African American artists and intellectuals included Marian Anderson, James Baldwin, Julian Bond, Ralph Bunche, W.E.B. DuBois, Katherine Dunham, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Jacob Lawrence, Langston Hughes and Gordon Parks. Addressing needs brought about by the Great Migration, Rosenwald also funded the building of housing and YMCAs for African Americans.
