Victor "Vic" Rosenthal

Victor (Vic) Rosenthal passed away peacefully on Tuesday morning, March 28, at the Beyond Hospice Home in Oakdale, MN. He was surrounded by family in a room filled with love.

Vic was born on February 16, 1955, in New York City, and first lived twenty blocks from Yankee Stadium before spending most of his childhood in Yonkers. He received his undergraduate degree in history from SUNY Binghamton University and received his master’s in public administration from Rutgers University.

Vic began his career working on nursing home reform as a Vista Volunteer in Elyria, Ohio, before a cross-country road trip would change the course of his life. He met his wife Chris on a road trip of her own in a true moment of serendipity in 1978 at Jenny Lake in Wyoming. A Minnesotan farm girl and New York City boy began a long-distance romance before the two were married in 1980. After spending six years in New Jersey, Vic and his family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1986, spending the next thirty-seven years in the same home on Laurel Avenue. At the time, Vic could not imagine that he’d spend more of his life in the Midwest than the East Coast, nor that he would root harder for the Vikings and Timberwolves than the Giants and Knicks as Minnesota became his home. The New York Yankees, of course, would always be the team of his heart.

During his time as a community organizer across the decades in the Twin Cities, Vic was a champion for racial, economic, and social justice in many roles, most notably as Executive Director of Jewish Community Action (JCA), a St. Paul nonprofit, from 2000 – 2017. Vic was a passionate leader, a tireless advocate, and an inspirational mentor—he built multifaith and multiracial alliances that JCA has sustained both in Minnesota and in national movements for justice.

Among the many ways in which Vic worked to create a more just and equitable world, he organized to protect immigrant rights, to defend marriage equality and voting rights, to build affordable housing, to create access to light rail, and to never bend or break in the face of adversity. When he would be told “no” or when a campaign he’d worked hard on didn’t reach its goal, he just kept trying, kept fighting. In 2003, Vic ran for St. Paul City Council and although the campaign did not end in victory, it served the usual purpose that any obstacle did for him—a chance to learn and move forward. As Paul Wellstone said, “we all do better when we all do better,” and Vic believed deeply in this idea and applied it in doing work that improved his community for all its residents.

Nothing could stop Vic’s passionate pursuit for creating a better world—even as cancer waged war on his body, he continued his work, organizing with a diverse group of community elders to give voice to senior citizens and create multigenerational coalitions across Minnesota. He also helped form the St. Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission in 2023. His longtime efforts culminated in being honored with a proclamation from Mayor Melvin Carter declaring Saturday, March 18, 2023, as Vic Rosenthal Day in the city of St. Paul.

Vic was also a beloved educator at Metro State University, teaching political science and organizing. He was also an important member and leader in the Twin Cities Jewish community through Mount Zion Temple, Temple of Aaron, and the Jewish Community Center.

Vic’s dedication and commitment extended to every facet of his life. While Vic was not a hobbyist, he was an active athlete, running two marathons, and enjoyed playing basketball, soccer, softball, bowling, and tennis. Golf became his favorite pastime, playing countless rounds with his family and friends. He also loved to walk and made sure he got his steps in every day. Not surprisingly, he was an enthusiastic sports fan, both of his favorite professional teams and his sons’ various teams through youth sports, high school, and college. He could always be heard on the sidelines, perhaps occasionally too much so from the referee’s perspective, but that wouldn’t stop him. There even seemed to be an endearing affection from those referees when he coached the sideline for his boys’ youth soccer and basketball teams—his sarcastic sense of humor usually could win people over.

Vic did nothing without purpose, and everything he did, he did with his whole heart, a heart overflowing with a powerful love. And there was nothing he loved more than his family and friends. He was usually at the center of it all—the first voice you heard when entering a crowded room and always one to happily get on the dance floor or belt out a Bruce Springsteen song. He would readily engage in any political or sports debate and was a great storyteller. He was also an introspective person and loved to reflect and talk deeply about life and its trials. As serious as he could be at times, he loved to laugh more than anything, especially with his family. To be loved by Vic meant to be loved without condition or limit. Even when he was not feeling well, he still wanted to play games and welcomed the chance to play crabby shopkeeper with his grandchildren. He was a passionate, intelligent, thoughtful, caring, inspiring, and generous man, but it was his capacity to love that exceeded everything.

He was preceded in death by his parents Sylvia and Leo Rosenthal. He is survived by his beloved family: wife, Chris; his sons, Ben and Aaron; his daughters-in-law, Megan and Florencia; his two grandchildren, Harper and Henry; his sister Wendy, brother-in-law, Tony, and niece, Carla. Funeral service will be held at Mount Zion Temple on Sunday, April 2nd, at 2:30 pm, and livestreamed at www.mzion.org/pray/live-streaming, and the family will be sitting Shiva at Mount Zion Temple on the evenings of Sunday (April 2nd) and Monday (April 3rd) at 7:00 pm. Memorials preferred to Jewish Community Action (https://www.jewishcommunityaction.org/) and Beyond Hospice: the Pillars (https://www.beyondhospicemn.org/) in Oakdale, MN, where Vic received tremendous care in his final days.