ROSENBERG, JAMES NAUMBURG

ROSENBERG, JAMES NAUMBURG (1874–1970), U.S. lawyer, artist, philanthropist and author. Rosenberg, who was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, engaged in private law practice until 1947; he then retired to pursue an art career; his paintings were subsequently hung in several major U.S. museums. Active in public and Jewish affairs, Rosenberg served as chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee in Europe (1921); founded the Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in Russia (1926), directing the population transfer of 30,000 Jews to Birobidzhan; helped found the Central Bank of Cooperative Institutions in Palestine; and founded the Agro-Joint. He was president of the Dominican Republic Settlement association formed to settle the 100,000 refugees that Trujillo's government offered to accept at the 1938 Evian Conference. Rosenberg led the U.S. delegation (1947) that sponsored the Genocide Convention adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. An art patron as well as a painter, Rosenberg founded New York's New Gallery which exhibited and sold the works of unknown artists. Rosenberg's written works include: Corporate Reorganization and the Federal Court (1924); On the Steppes (1972); Painter's Self-Portrait (1958); and Unfinished Business (1967), including personal papers.