Sonneschein was born in Prostějov, Moravia in 1847 to Fannie and Hirsch Bär Fassel. In 1864, she married Rabbi Solomon Sonneschein and moved with his congregational posts to Varaždin, Prague, New York City, and finally to St. Louis, Missouri. They had four children: Ben, Fanny, Leontine, and Monroe, who would later in his life contribute to the magazine. Sonneschein was an active rebbetzin in St. Louis and helped lead ladies' meetings, choral societies, and later founded the Pioneers, a Jewish women's literary society. Rosa and Solomon divorced in 1893. Their prominence in the community and the rarity of divorce at the time caused a sensation reported on in the New York Times. The divorce was granted to Rabbi Sonneschein on the grounds of desertion and thus she was left without alimony, leading her to enterprise on her journalistic skills to support herself. She died on March 5, 1932, in St. Louis...
