Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Even Rod Rosenstein’s Family Disagrees On How To Pronounce Their Last Name

Jews love to argue — and the pronunciation over common last names ending in “stein” is a classic example: Should it be pronounced “steen” or “stine”?

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the ongoing debate even more confusing on Tuesday when he announced at a Newseum event that there is no definitively correct way to pronounce his last name.

While Rosenstein clarified that he personally goes with the long “i”, he has family members who choose the long “e”, Washington Post reporter Matthew Zapotosky tweeted.

At the event, Rosenstein described a draft impeachment paper against him written by some House Republicans was a form of extortion to get him to protect President Trump.

“There are people who have been making threats, privately and publicly, against me for quite some time,” he said. “And I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.”

Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.