Rosen, Joseph Borisovich

Born in Moscow ^[2] . But there is evidence that his father was the owner of a dye in Tula ^[3] . Studied at Moscow University ^[2] . Sentenced to exile in Siberia for participating in a revolutionary circle. He was a member of the RSDLP of the Mensheviks ^[4] . At 17, he fled from exile to Germany. He studied at the agricultural department of the University of Heidelberg .

In 1903 he emigrated to the United States, worked as an agricultural worker for two years. In 1905-1908 he continued his education at the Michigan Agricultural College. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota , specializing in agricultural chemistry. In the middle of 1910, he developed a new variety of winter rye named after him ("Rosen Rye"), and is widely distributed in American farms ^[5] . According to the project of Rosen and under his leadership in Minneapolis , an agronomic center was created with a branch in Yekaterinoslav , and later in Kharkov . The goal of this center was to train agronomists from the Russian Empire in the skills and techniques of highly productive agriculture. In 1915-1918 he was the head of the agricultural department at the New York office of the Petrograd International Commercial Bank . He was the head of the agricultural colony of the Jewish Colonization Society , created by Baron M. Hirsch , in Woodbine ( New Jersey ).

From 1921 he was the ambassador of the Joint in Russia and the representative of the Joint in the ARA ^[6] , from 1924 to 1938 he was the director of the Agro Joint corporation, which set as its goal the transformation of Soviet Jews, mainly “ deprived people ” into peasants . Rosen believed that only in “productivization”, that is, in the transition to productive labor, is the secret of the happy future of the Jewish people under Soviet rule ^[6] .

Rosen led the program for the relocation of German Jewish doctors from Nazi Germany to the USSR. Subsequently, at least 14 of them were repressed by the NKVD, and their families were partially expelled ^[7] .

During the years of great terror, both deputy Rosen on the Agro-Joint were arrested on November 27, 1937 ^[8] Ezekiel Abramovich Groer (1886-1938), and on March 27, 1938 Samuel Efimovich Lubarsky (1878-1938) ^[9] . The sentence “10 years without the right of correspondence” was announced to relatives ^[10] . Rosen decided to take responsibility. On December 16, 1937, he sent a letter from Paris to the NKVD:

Through the wives of German Jewish doctors who were expelled from the USSR, who at one time had the opportunity to go to the Soviet Union to work in their specialty with the assistance of our organization, I became aware that several of our employees were arrested by the NKVD. As the director of Agro-Joint, I consider it my duty to declare that if any illegal actions are detected in the work of our organization in the USSR, then I am personally responsible, and not our employees or my deputies. I hereby ask you to provide me with the opportunity to testify to the relevant Soviet authorities on all issues related to the activities of our organization in the USSR, and I express my consent in advance not to resort to the protection of any diplomatic sources, since the matter concerns me personally ^[11] .

According to the recollections of the daughter of I. A. Groer, trying to save the arrested, Rosen even managed to meet with Molotov , but Molotov replied that he could not do anything, since they confessed everything ^[10] . In fact, at that moment both Groer and Lubarsky were already shot ^[10] (the first - March 15, 1938 ^[9] , the second - September 1, 1938 ^[9] ). In total, during the years of Stalinist terror, at least 30 Agro-Joint employees were repressed ^[12] , and in all, 70 people went through the Agro-Joint case and all were convicted ^[13] . Rosen's name appeared in many cases not directly related to the Joint. So in the case of the Moscow rabbi Shmaryagu-Yehuda-Leiba Medal , the accusation was alleged that he received money from Rosen for distribution to the poor. Other members of the Moscow religious community (M. Rabinovich, M. Sheptovitsky, etc.) were accused of distributing this money ^[3] .

In 1939, Rosen, on behalf of the Joint, found out the possibilities of arranging Jewish refugee settlements from Europe in British Guiana and the Dominican Republic . One of the streets of Santo Domingo is named after him.

Wife - Ekaterina Nikanorovna nee Shubina (Katherine N. Rosen) (circa 1880 - August 5, 1957) - the daughter of a member of the district court of Baku Nikanor Alexandrovich Shubin ^[14] and Sofya Evgenievna, nee Yakushkina, daughter E. I. Yakushkin and granddaughter of the Decembrist . Social Revolutionary. In 1910, deprived of her rights and exiled to Siberia. I ran. She founded the International Book Service in New York, and spent 25 years in the book business ^[15] . In 1933, Catherine N. Rosen published a bibliography of books in English about Russia (Books in the English Language on Russia) ^[16] .

• Brief Jewish Encyclopedia. T. 7. Col. 253-254.
• Michel Michael . "Final chapter". Agro Joint during the years of great terror. Kiev: Spirit and Literature. 2012.

• Rosen Joseph A. Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• Guide to the Papers of Joseph A. Rosen (1877-1949), 1911-1943 (bulk 1922-1938)
• Dr. Joseph Rosen, Agro-joint Director Who Resettled 250,000 Jews in Russia, Dies in NY