Joseph A. Rosen

Joseph A. Rosen (born Joseph Borisovich Rosen, 1877 – April 3, 1949) is an American agronomist of Russian Jewish origin. He was head of the Russian branch of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee from 1924 to 1938.

Biography Rosen was born in Moscow. His father was the owner of a dye-house in Tula. He studied at Moscow University. He fled from exile to Germany at the age of 17, where he studied at the agricultural department of the Heidelberg University. He emigrated to the US in 1903 and worked in agriculture for two years. He continued his education at the Michigan Agricultural College from 1905 to 1908, where he received a master's degree in agriculture. He received a Ph.D. in agrochemistry from the University of Minnesota.

Career He developed a new variety of winter rye in 1910, which was named after him ("Rosen Rye") and became widespread on American farms. He was director of the Agro-Joint Corporation from 1924 to 1938, which aimed to transform Soviet Jews, mainly "Lishenets", into peasants. Rosen believed that the secret of a happy future for the Jewish people under Soviet rule was in productive labor.

During the Great Purge, at least 30 employees of Agro-Joint were repressed, and 70 people were convicted in the Agro-Joint case. Rosen's name featured in many cases not directly related to the JDC. A Moscow rabbi Shmarya Yehuda Leib Medalia was accused of receiving money from Rosen to distribute to the poor. Other members of this Moscow religious community (Meyer Rabinovich, Emanuil Sheptovitsky, and others) were also accused of distributing money from him. (1878–1938). Their relatives were told that both of them were sentenced to "ten years without the right to correspond". Rosen decided to take charge, and sent a letter from Paris to the NKVD on December 16, 1937:

According to Groer's daughter, Rosen met with Stalin's confidante, Vyacheslav Molotov, but Molotov said that he could not do anything, since the duo had already confessed to everything.