Ernest Gunter Fontheim

About the Author

Ernest Fontheim was a prominent professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Michigan from 1960-1991. Born in Berlin, he survived the Holocaust, although his parents, Georg and Charlotte, as well as his younger sister, Eva, were murdered in Auschwitz. He immigrated to America in 1947. In 1957, he received a Ph.D. in physics from Lehigh University. He passed away in 2019, leaving behind two children and three grandchildren.

Fred Rosenbaum has published eight books, including Cosmopolitans (UC Press), and has co-authored four memoirs of Holocaust survivors, including Taking Risks (with Joseph Pell), Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year; and the best-selling Out on a Ledge (with Eva Libitzky), a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award of the Independent Publishers Association. He is the Founding Director Emeritus of Lehrhaus Judaica (now New Lehrhaus), one of North America’s premier schools for adult Jewish education, and has taught at San Francisco State University and the Berkeley-based Graduate Theological Union. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
 
Jordan Fontheim, Ernest’s grandson, is a senior consultant in the healthcare industry and an active member of the Jewish community of Washington, DC. Deeply involved in Jewish culture throughout his life, he grew up hearing his family’s survival story and joined the project to carry his grandfather’s legacy into print for the next generation. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Rochester and both an M.B.A. and an M.H.A. from Tulane University. He currently resides in Washington, DC with his partner.