Irene Merker Rosenberg

  Irene Merker Rosenberg, Royce R. Till Professor Emerita of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, died on November 17, 2010. She was born in the Bronx, New York on June 1, 1939 and was educated at The City College of New York, where she earned a B.A. in 1961.  She also earned a LL.B., from New York University School of Law in 1964.  At NYU she was a Florence Allen Scholar and an editor of Law Review. There she met Professor Yale L. Rosenberg her colleague, collaborator, and first husband to whom she was happily married for 38 years until his death in 2002. Irene Merker Rosenberg was a compassionate, courageous, and accomplished woman, who contributed much to her community, to the world of scholarship, to the students she taught, and to the Law Center she graced.

            Upon attaining her law degree, Professor Rosenberg spent two years with the Department of Health, Education & Welfare, Office of the General Counsel, Washington D.C. as a staff attorney. In 1967 she joined the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York. She was the attorney in charge of the Bronx office and responsible for the training and supervision of 60 attorneys. In this capacity she developed the first training manual for juvenile attorneys, which with very few modifications is still being used today. She joined the University of Houston faculty in 1974, teaching generations of students Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Juvenile Law, Legal Analysis, and a Juvenile Justice Clinic.

            A distinguished scholar, Irene Rosenberg was an expert in juvenile justice, children’s law, and constitutional law. With Yale as a co-author, she wrote many important pieces on criminal law, Jewish law and the comparison of secular and religious law. 

            Irene Rosenberg has been a beloved member of congregations Ahavat Yisrael and Young Israel of Houston. Her open heart and generosity will be remembered by the many people whose lives she touched, both here and abroad. Irene never met someone who was not her friend and never saw a friend in need without helping.

            Irene Merker Rosenberg is survived by her beloved husband Rabbi Pesach Greenman, her sister Eisa Thibeau and her family, her cousin Iris and Marty Lubin and family, her granddaughter Rifka Sarah, housekeeper and dear friend Rosalia Rivas, other family and friends.  She was predeceased by her first husband Professor Yale L. Rosenberg, father and mother, Sam and Sylvia Merker, her older brother Theodore Jaffe, and older sister Dorothy Osattin.

            Funeral services will be held on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at Young Israel, 7823 Ludington Dr. Interment will follow at the Adath Emeth Cemetery with Rabbi Eliezer Lazaroff officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center - Dr. Nicholas Levine’s research, MD Anderson, Development Office, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210-4486, to the Irene Merker Rosenberg Scholars at the University of Houston Law Center, 100 Law Center, Houston, TX  77204, or to Aishel House at the Texas Medical Center, 1955 University Blvd. Houston, TX 77030.

Comments

[Patricia Newman Brantley]

Irene Rosenberg was my professor at the University of Houston and I was her research assistant. She had a wonderful influence on my career and life. She taught me that guilt was not necessarily the overriding issue in a question of criminal jurisprudence. She also taught me that children have constitutional rights. There will never be another Irene, and the world is worse off for it.