Nathan Rosenberg, the first director of the local Allied Jewish Federation, died Nov. 23. He was 96.
The federation raises money for dozens of causes in the Jewish community, and Rosenberg was a consummate fundraiser.
“Nat was the most influential Jewish leader in the Denver community in his time,” said Sheldon Steinhauser, former director of the Mountain States Anti-Defamation League.
“He was deeply committed to the Jewish community and concerned that (Jews) were helping people here and elsewhere,” said Steinhauser.
Rosenberg knew how to put the right volunteer with the right donor and made plenty of personal appeals to get Jews to donate in the annual federation fundraiser.
“He’d go anywhere — to a person’s home or office or have gatherings. He was a master at it,” Steinhauser said.
Rosenberg was “a bright, articulate man,” said his daughter Sara Page of Mercer Island, Wash.
“He was such a wordsmith. I used him instead of using a dictionary,” Page said. “He was a lifetime learner.”
She recalled that her dad always told stories to his children and grandchildren — stories from ancient civilizations, myth ology or world events, such as the Holocaust.
Rosenberg wanted his children and grandchildren to understand what happened to Jews in World War II, Page said.
After storytelling, he’d ask the kids what they had learned.
“He had high academic and success expectations for his children,” Page said.
Nathan Rosenberg was born in New York on Dec. 19, 1910.
He met Ruth Ann Friedman at her family’s boardinghouse in the Catskills. They were married Oct. 18, 1936.
Rosenberg got bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English at City University of New York and another master’s in social work at Columbia University in New York.
He taught English in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen area. During World War II, he was head of the USO in Hawaii.
After the war, he worked for the Joint Distribution Center in Chicago.
Rosenberg moved to Denver in 1948 to head the federation, then called the Allied Jewish Council. It was a post he held until his retirement in 1975.
The Rosenbergs moved to Florida and then Tucson, where he died.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Judie Berendt of Tucson; a son, Joe Rosenberg of Long Beach, Calif.; 11 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
