In Vienna, years ago, they told the story of a gifted and beautiful singer, born a Jewess although she never mentioned the fact, who was invited to appear at a Court recital. The Empress Elisabeth, interested in the young woman, talked kindly to her after the performance, inquired after her parentage, her upbringing and her religion. The singer said with a blush of embarrassment: “I have no religious affiliations, Your Majesty.” The Empress turned away with a shrug: “That is a pity,” she said. “Without it you can never be a true artist.”
Many Jewish women, alas, who have won honor and renown show the same moral weakness and try to forget that the deepest roots of their nature bind them to their own people, and that when those roots are severed, the best in them is doomed to die. It is, therefore, a delightful and refreshing experience to meet one who always and under all circumstances has been a true daughter of her people, who has not only never hidden but always proudly stressed the fact that she is a Jewess, and who has through her work and her personality gained the respect of the world for herself and her people. She is Rose Rothenberg, known as a brilliant member of the district attorney’s office.
SHONE AT THE BAR
Miss Rothenberg, in private life the wife of a well known physician, Dr. Maximilian W. Goldstein, was born in Rumania, but came as a very small child to New York. A graduate of New York University Law School, she became, soon after admission to the bar, an assistant district attorney. She was not only the first Jewish woman to hold this office, but she was also the first woman who ever was chosen to prosecute cases before a jury, and she was soon recognized as a brilliant legal talent.
In all these successes she remained a true daughter of her people and kept the religious traditions of Israel with a beautiful faithfulness. Her free time she devoted and still devotes to civic and social welfare work. She has done splendid things for the Beth Abraham Home for Incurables and she is one of the most valued members of the Daughters of Jacob.
Having no children of her own she works for the welfare of other children, trying to procure for them healthy homes, Summer vacations and the intelligent care of which the underprivileged child is often so sadly in need. She has strong and deep convictions on the matter of charity.
“Frankly,” she says, “I don’t believe in organized charity, or, let us rather say, I feel that organized charity cannot possibly do enough. There are many persons who would perish rather than appeal to such organizations. It is then that personal service is needed, that personal attention must be offered. The fact, the friendliness, the understanding of a woman is needed to bring to those proud unfortunates the help that must be given to them.”
SEES WOMEN AS INTENSE
When one asks Miss Rothenberg whether women are as able in legal work as men she says: “Yes, I think so. But at a greater emotional and nervous outlay. Men do the best they can and let it go at that, but a woman identifies herself completely with her work.”
Miss Rothenberg appears a very charming, very feminine personality with a touch of gamin: Impulsive, clever, with a true sense of humor. She smiles readily and becomes deeply serious only when she speaks of her race, her religion.
“I am a Jewess first, last, and all the time,” she says. And in listening to her, one feels that if she is proud of her people, her people have also every reason to be proud of her. Among the representative Jewish women Rose Rothenberg occupies a leading place.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
