Ethel Rosenberg

Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg was born and raised in New York City, a child of Jewish immigrants. She was, by all accounts, a devout secular Jew, involved in various left-wing Jewish organizations, and even sang in the choir at the National Council of Jewish Women. So, while her identity might have leaned more toward activism than synagogue attendance, her Jewishness was undeniably a foundational element of her life and worldview. She had the heritage, the community, and the cause.

Her story, intertwined with her husband Julius, became a flashpoint of the Cold War, a testament to McCarthy-era paranoia, and a lasting symbol of government overreach for some, or justified retribution for others. The "atom spies" were convicted of conspiring to pass atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union, a charge for which they maintained their innocence until the very end, even as her brother provided testimony against them.

Ethel's execution in 1953, the first of an American civilian woman since 1865, ensured her place in history, if not for her alleged espionage, then certainly for the sheer drama and controversy surrounding her trial and death. Whether you see her as a martyr or a traitor, her ultimate achievement was to become one half of perhaps the most famous, and infamous, married couple in American spy lore.