Holocaust survivor John Rosenberg became a Kentucky legal aid pioneer

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WASHINGTON - Holocaust survivor and longtime leader of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, John Rosenberg, is featured on a new episode of the Legal Services Corporation's (LSC) podcast, "Talk Justice." LSC President Ron Flagg speaks with Rosenberg about his memories of Nazi Germany, becoming a lawyer in the United States, working for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division and earning the trust of his Eastern Kentucky community.

Rosenberg said he remembers being 7 years old in 1938, watching Nazis destroy his synagogue in the middle of the night - the night now known as Kristallnacht. The synagogue was adjacent to his family's apartment building, and the dynamite in the synagogue also damaged their home.

"I remember that pretty vividly," Rosenberg said. "The next morning when I woke up, there was a knock on the door and these two Gestapo agents came to arrest my father."

His father, a teacher, was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp along with 125 other men from their community. In the 17 days he spent there, 25 of the men died. Upon his release, the Rosenberg family was given 30 days to leave Germany. They spent a year in an internment camp in Holland, then came to the United States to start a new life.

Rosenberg said that his family felt very grateful to be in the United States, even as they struggled to find work and make ends meet. His parents instilled in him this gratitude, along with a belief in justice.

"Judaism teaches you that justice is the most important thing that we can do, and we want to do what we can to help repair the world, " Rosenberg said. "And so, I think that's been part of our family history."

Rosenberg later joined the U.S. Air Force, then studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He witnessed segregation as he grew up in the South and thought that he would like to help change things. He went to work at the DOJ Civil Rights Division in 1962, and made significant contributions to civil rights through his litigation work for eight years there.

"It was a grand experience for me," Rosenberg said. "I learned to try big cases, small cases. I was involved in a number of major civil rights litigation, and it was really a wonderful opportunity for me to become a very good trial lawyer."

"It's quite something to be able to represent the United States in court with that history of ours," he added.

In 1970, Rosenberg and his wife, Jean, were on a road trip camping in National Parks when they got a call from his DOJ colleague Terry Lenzner, who was now at the Office of Economic Opportunity.

"He told me about this group in Charleston, West Virginia and in Prestonsburg, Kentucky - of all places - that were doing public interest work, but were having some financial issues," said Rosenberg. "And he was interested in funding that group to look at more of the symptomatic issues of poverty in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia and the coal fields and [said] that they needed a new director in Kentucky."

That director would be Rosenberg. It got off to a rocky start. He explained they had trouble finding a landlord who would rent them office space, and they clashed with the local bar association.

But the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, also known as AppalRed Legal Aid, kept going and took on cases to help coal miners and their families. They helped people who were being impacted by the harmful effects of strip-mining.

Over time, AppalReD - which receives a portion of its funding through grants from LSC - grew, and the slate of services evolved to include legal help for survivors of domestic violence and veterans, as well as assistance with divorces, housing matters, expungements and disaster recovery.

Rosenberg said that he has seen bipartisan Congressional support for funding for civil legal services grow over the years, and he attributes some of this to the community-level connections that organizations like AppalRed are making across the country.

"It's really having connections in the community where you are, where folks realize how important having representation is," he said. "At home at AppalRed, I'm really proud of the fact that we've got more and more lawyers who are from the region who are living [there], who are doing the good work."

Rosenberg retired from AppalRed in 2002. Despite the progress, Rosenberg thinks about the justice gap and the large number of people who still can't get help with their civil legal problems. LSC grantees turn away half of the eligible clients who seek their help due to a lack of resources.

"I think it's just crucial that people [receive help] - that's part of who we are, part of what legal service is all about, part of why I've been so proud of what my program has done and what other programs have done," Rosenberg said. "It's been terrific, and I'd like to say I hope I'm still a part of it."

The American Bar Association (ABA) is awarding Rosenberg the 2026 ABA Medal for his distinguished service.

To hear more from this conversation with Rosenberg, listen to the full episode of Talk Justice online, on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC's Leaders Council.