IN MEMORIAM: Gene Rothman

Gene Rothman (far right) with fellow social workers

Gene Rothman, Social Action Social Justice Council Member

Social justice lost a champion on February 8 of this year, when professional social worker, scholar, and beloved family member Gene Rothman succumbed to cancer at the age of 74.

We remember him as a longtime dedicated member of the Social Action Social Justice Council, writing for our NASW California News column as well as editorial letters to various news outlets and enlightened emails. He always gave credit where credit was due and went the extra mile to acknowledge others.

Gene put his heart into everything he did, and he was devoted to many causes in the name of fairness and dignity for those oppressed and shunned.  When loved ones, colleagues and friends recently gathered to memorialize him at Temple Akiba in Culver City, the many fond remembrances and anecdotes spoke to Gene’s compassion for those unfairly left behind in today’s society, and his willingness to put his own well-being on the line to support their cause.  Gene always managed to find time for his family, too.  He was a quiet and unassuming individual with a gentle sense of humor, always listening first but firm in his ideals and ready to articulate them to great effect.  A deeply spiritual person, he nevertheless honored others’ beliefs and committed himself tirelessly to finding common ground.  His most beloved Biblical quote was Micah 6:8, “And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

It would be hard to select one act to represent all of Gene’s many efforts for social justice, but one, related by his daughter Leah at the memorial, illustrates the way in which Gene applied his bravery and intellect (attested to by his MSW from CUNY Hunter College and his PhD in sociology from UCLA) to his social conscience.  As a social worker at a Veterans Administration psychiatric hospital in the 1980s, Gene risked his career to act on his concern for the well-being of hospitalized female veteran psychiatric patients—in particular their lack of access to reproductive health care and their fears of sexual harassment and assault. Women veterans were at the time a small, nearly invisible minority group, and those issues wouldn’t become a popular cause for decades afterward. Knowing also that VA bureaucratic pushback would be fierce, Gene nevertheless published a survey of their situation.  In it he conveyed information from his women colleagues who feared rejection or retaliation if they themselves made their concerns public.

Gene remained quite active with many groups during his “retirement” from professional social work, attending marches, SASJ council meetings, and participating in interfaith justice activities. He will be remembered fondly by several fellow council members through his gift of a beautiful ceramic teaspoon to each of us, along with this Pete Seeger quote which really sums up his spirit:

“The world is like a seesaw out of balance: on one side is a box of big rocks, tilting it its way. On the other side is a box, and a bunch of us with teaspoons, adding a little sand at a time. One day, all of our teaspoons will add up, and the whole thing will tip, and people will say, ‘How did it happen so fast?”

We are all the poorer for having lost Gene, but every one of us who have been touched by his example is the stronger for it, ready to devote ourselves to repairing the world.

Donations are being made to CLUE, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, in Gene’s memory. If you would like to join this effort you may do so here:

https://www.facebook.com/donate/335289076982022/

Or here:

https://cluela.nationbuilder.com/donate

Respectfully submitted by Sam Coleman, Natalia Salinas, and Shuli Lotan, SASJ council members