Growing Up Jewish in Shanghai / Rahma-Rose Jacobs was born in Shanghai, China, in 1924 to a Sephardic Jewish family. Her father, who moved to Shanghai from Iraq, worked as the senior accountant for the Sassoon family while her mother's family had roots in China going back to 1863. As a child, Rose was often ill, but she was still able to attend the Western Public School for Girls. After graduating, she began attending a business college, but had to stop when the school was shut down in 1941 during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.
After the war, Rose and her mother attempted to immigrate to America, and eventually settled in California after temporarily being offered asylum in Vancouver, Canada. During this time, Rose also met and married her husband George Horowitz, who was originally from Vienna but had fled to Shanghai to escape religious persecution.
After retiring early, Rose dedicated herself to volunteering for various causes, including working as a docent for the Skirball Museum of Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. She also worked with The Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton to conduct a series of oral history interviews of Old China Hands to document their experiences living as foreigners in China.
