Remembering Jean Rothenberg

Jean W. Rothenberg, who died in May at the age of 98, was one of the many older Jewish women I've had the opportunity to meet in Cincinnati who made me realize that any city that could boast vital sharp women like these had something special going for it. There was a strength to the civic Jewish culture here that these women both made possible and reflected. It was women like Jean (all of them of course completely unique in themselves) who made me want to understand this community and its history at a deeper level.

I'm very pleased that the Jewish Women's Archive was able to post a remembrance of Jean, written by Sue Ransohoff and Jim Kesner, on the "In Memoriam" pages of our website. The remembrance points to Jean's devoted work on behalf of the hearing impaired and to her indomitable and feisty personality.

Jean had a reputation for being tough, but as many anecdotes about her suggest she was more than ready to open herself to everyone that came her way. Jim Kesner remembers how Jean introduced herself at the opera, got him to walk her to her car, and then invited herself to join his movie group. Another friend told me that once her knees went bad, Jean would happily cadge downhill rides from whatever random car might be going by.

Once, as I was anticipating an upcoming sabbatical, I told Jean that I was thinking of following my days of research and writing with evenings spent watching classic films borrowed from the public library. She seconded my plan and, without hesitation, suggested that I bring the movies over to her house so we could watch them together. Would that I had actually followed through on this video sharing plan rather than feeling, in the end, too overwhelmed by work to spend time watching movies.

There are a few observations about Jean that I wanted to be sure to include in the JWA remembrance. The first was about Jean's truly uncanny ability to make the person standing in front of her feel like there was, at that moment, no one on earth that she could possibly find more interesting. She offered her full focus, conveying her sense that there was nothing more she could want than to learn from you. The other observation was the dominant theme that I heard emerging from Jean's memorial service in June which is also present in the "In Memoriam" piece --- Jean did everything she could to live fully and, in the process, she offered others a model of how to live.

Finally and fortuitously, it just so happens that this week I came across the engagement and wedding announcements of Jean's marriage to Dr. Robert (Bob) Rothenberg. It is my great pleasure as a researcher to be able to share excerpts here. On September 27, 1929, Every Friday announced the engagement of Miss Jean Ransohoff Westheimer, who had just returned from a summer abroad with her parents to Dr. Robert Rothenberg, "a Harvard man, 1924" who had taken his medical training at the University of Cincinnati and was completing an internship at the University of Michigan.

Despite the local prominence of both Jean's and Bob's parents [Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Rothenberg], the wedding appears to have been a simple affair, ornamented with a "musical programme by the Heermann Trio ... supplemented by vocal solos by Mr. Dan Beddoe." It took place on a "Thursday evening, October 3rd [1929], at the home of the bride's parents [Mr. and Mrs. Leo Westheimer], only members of the family attending the quiet ceremony." Unlike many Every Friday wedding announcements, this one carried no mention of what the bride wore. We do learn that both of Cincinnati's leading Reform rabbis participated in the ceremony with "Dr. James G. Heller officiat[ing] and Dr. David Philipson pronounc[ing] the blessing."

I'm grateful that I got to know Jean ... an American Israelite to remember.