Nina Rosenwald is an American political activist and philanthropist. An heiress to the Sears Roebuck fortune, she is vice president of the William Rosenwald Family Fund and co-chair of the board of American Securities Management. She is the founder and president of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based right-wing think tank.
Family and Background
Born and raised in New York City, Rosenwald is one of three daughters of William Rosenwald and Mary Kurtz Rosenwald. Her grandfather, Julius Rosenwald, was an early investor in Sears, Roebuck & Company and served as its president from 1908 to 1924. Julius Rosenwald notably partnered with Booker T. Washington to build more than 5,000 schoolhouses for African-American children throughout the Southern United States. Her father, William Rosenwald, was chairman of the investment firm American Securities and a founding member of the United Jewish Appeal in 1939. Her mother, a professional violinist, was a refugee from the Russian Revolution and Nazi Germany.
Education
Rosenwald received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, and an M.A. in English from New York University.
Political Activism
Rosenwald's political activism began in the 1970s in support of Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson. She also supported the campaigns of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, serving on his campaign finance committee. In 1984, she was appointed to the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Convention, and she served as a delegate from New York at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
She has focused her philanthropic efforts on pro-Israel organizations. She has served on the board of directors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Hudson Institute, and was vice president of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). In 2003, she received the Louis Brandeis Award from the Zionist Organization of America for her pro-Israel advocacy.
Rosenwald founded the Gatestone Institute in 2012 and serves as its president. She also serves on the boards of Human Rights in China, the Middle East Forum, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the Institute for National Security Studies, and the American Friends of the Open University of Israel. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a founding member of the Board of Regents for the Center for Security Policy.
Controversy and Criticism
Rosenwald has been a subject of controversy regarding her funding of organizations described by critics as promoting anti-Muslim views. In 2012, The Nation published an article by Max Blumenthal describing her as "the sugar mama of anti-Muslim hate." According to that article, Rosenwald donated over $2.8 million to organizations including the Gatestone Institute, the Center for Security Policy, the Middle East Forum, and others. The Middle East Forum received $2.3 million from Rosenwald over a ten-year period ending in 2012.
Some Muslim figures have disputed allegations of Islamophobia. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, and writer Raheel Raza have publicly defended Rosenwald against accusations made by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Her family fund has provided financial support to institutions located in settlements on the West Bank, including the Beit El Yeshiva and Ariel University, as well as the Central Fund of Israel.
Rosenwald resigned from the board of Freedom House in 2007, arguing that it had become overly reliant on government funding and had lost its role as a "voice for freedom." In 2007, The Washington Post listed her among the "people of means and influence" who raised money to lobby President George W. Bush to pardon Scooter Libby.
