#julius and ethel rosenberg

On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by the U.S. government for conspiracy to commit espionage during the Cold War. Artist Adrian Piper responded to this moment of fear in American history with Xenophobia I: Anti-Semitism (1987) in the Jewish Museum collection.

“Xenophobia I: Anti-Semitism challenges us to scrutinize ourselves in the act of xenophobic rejection, and simultaneously the rationalizations we invoke to defend ourselves against the truth of our actions. The Rosenberg case focused inward the fears of Communist contamination and infiltration generated by the Cold War and the Army-McCarthy hearings. We used the Rosenbergs to transform our fear of an alien other invading us from outside into fear of one another, alienating ourselves from the suspected invader within us: the idea of sharing, trust, and mutual solidarity."—Adrian Piper, 1988