Western culture has always been — and continues to be — a large part of Rozanne Rosenthal’s life.
When she was a young girl, her family lived on 20 acres of land in South Texas. She remembers raising calves, riding horses and playing with little lambs, ducks and chickens.
Rosenthal didn’t grow up in a large Jewish community but was always proud of her heritage, she said. She met Billy Rosenthal while the two were students at the University of Texas at Austin and learned he was raised much like herself.
His grandfather Ben H. Rosenthal founded the Standard Meat Co. in Fort Worth in 1935. The company is headquartered in the historic former Swift & Co. building in the Stockyards.
Rozanne and Billy Rosenthal got married and moved to the city in 1978 and, like the Stockyards, embody Fort Worth’s Cowtown moniker.
“Fort Worth has just made it easy to maintain our Western roots,” Rozanne Rosenthal said. “The Stockyards have never really left the Rosenthal family.”
Rozanne Rosenthal reflected on her and her husband’s family’s legacy ahead of the first Jewish Heritage Night at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo on Feb. 5. On Thursday, members of the Jewish community will gather for the rodeo’s semifinal round, celebrate their religious and cultural heritage and reflect on the legacy of Jewish contributions woven into the fabric of the city’s Western life.
Cowboy culture is about freedom, morality and doing the right thing, said Rabbi Andrew Bloom of Congregation Ahavath Sholom in southwest Fort Worth. It blends with principles in the Jewish faith such as helping those in need, freedom and supporting one another, he added.
Cowboy culture and Judaism are “two sides of the same coin,” he said.
“Here in Fort Worth, having Jewish Heritage Night is a recognition of that duality of purpose, duality of beliefs, of values,” Bloom said.
The rabbi will deliver the invocation at the rodeo Thursday night. He first blessed the rodeo in 2015, which was the first time any Jewish clergy had done so. He also sits on a faith committee for the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.
The way Bloom sees it, Fort Worth is the “buckle of the Bible Belt,” and each community is a rhinestone within that buckle, he said.
Having a Jewish Heritage Night ensures that the faith is “not only in the buckle of Fort Worth, but it’s in the buckle of the stock show and rodeo,” Bloom said.
Jewish impact in Fort Worth, Texas cowboy culture
The Jewish community in Fort Worth and Texas have made numerous contributions to the region’s Western culture, said Barry Ables, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
Billy Rosenthal’s grandfather, a Russian Jewish immigrant, rented a meat locker, bought beef from Fort Worth’s Stockyards, processed it and sold it door-to-door when he started his business, the Fort Worth Report previously reported.
Nearly a century later, the company is in its fourth generation of family ownership, and the Rosenthal name has become legendary in local and national business, community and philanthropy.
Other notable local Jewish community members honored for contributions to Western culture include the Luskey family, inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2018 for the family’s Western wear stores.
Frances Rosenthal Kallison was the first Jewish woman inducted in the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. She was born in Fort Worth in 1908 and is known as a pioneer horsewoman and historian, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
Her father and grandfather were among the founding members of Beth-El Congregation, a Reform Jewish Synagogue in Fort Worth chartered in 1902.
“With all of this heritage, with all of this activity going on specifically related to the rodeo, doing the heritage night through the rodeo seemed like a natural fit,” Ables said.
Looking back, it’s important to recognize the various founding families of Fort Worth and how everybody worked side by side, in building the city many call home today, Rozanne Rosenthal said.
Jewish Heritage Night joins other days where the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo recognizes other cultures embedded in Western culture, such as the Best of Mexico Celebración and the Cowboys of Color Rodeo, Rozanne Rosenthal noted.
“It’s just a wonderful thing that shows that our heritage is a part of a very diverse one,” she said. “The building of this community is the most beautiful thing.”
Disclaimer: Billy and Rozanne Rosenthal are financial supporters of the Fort Worth Report.
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Great Job Marissa Greene & the Team @ Fort Worth Report for sharing this story.
