Remembering Sister Rose
Much of what made Sister Rose so unforgettable was her extraordinary strength - not physical strength, but strength of conviction. She believed in what she did and did it brilliantly and with amazing courage. And she demanded that level of commitment from others. I once quipped that if I missed a board meeting she would send the Pope after me. I was only partly kidding.
When I first got to know Sister Rose, I wondered about the source of such strength. I think I found it in the remarkable story of her journey from a childhood growing up in Plains, Wisconsin, to her role as a fierce advocate for tolerance: it was her innate sense of justice, of what is right and what is wrong. Having never met a Jew, she somehow simply knew that the Church's teaching about the Jews was wrong, and so, with no thought for herself, she dedicated herself to changing the curriculum in Catholic schools. And, of course, being Sister Rose, she went further. She wrote a doctorate that was used to draft portions of the church's momentous document, Nostra Aetate, which in effect exonerated the Jews for Jesus' death. It was she who fought for the inclusion of Holocaust Studies in every school in New Jersey - public, private and parochial. And she made sure there were teachers who were trained to teach those classes.
I greatly admired Sister Rose. More than that, I loved her; she was my friend and teacher. I will never forget her and I doubt that I will ever meet her like again." - Sylvia Orenstein
When they arrived in Israel, we found the area completely desolated. Though it was winter, there was no heat in the hotels. The Israeli government who took us around to different sites, which got our visit some publicity in the press, hosted us. I cited an example of how the situation on the ground was being distorted in the media. A young, injured Palestinian boy was photographed as being carried away by Israelis which the Palestinian press considered kidnapping. In reality, the Israelis were taking the young man to a local hospital to be treated.
Sister Rose was quite upset at what was happening and how it was being portrayed in
the media. She spoke to representatives in the Israeli government advising them that
they needed to hire a good public relations person to ensure that correct information
and the true story of what is going on is being communicated. The answer Sister Rose
received, however, said that Israel was too busy fighting the war to address this.
So the small group returned to the United States.
About a month later Sister Rose went back to Israel again. This time she brought a group of Christian clergy and I joined her once again. Again, we visited the various sites so we could see first-hand what was happening. At the time, I had a cousin, an Orthodox Jew, who worked with the Israeli Chief of Staff in the military. Sister Rose asked him to give a lecture to the visiting clergy group. Among other things, she wanted him to explain how an Orthodox Jew could serve in the army. His answer was simply that he had to protect Israel.
The group also visited all the embassies and met with the Catholic bishop as well
as a member of the Greek Orthodox clergy. Sister Rose continued to urge all those
she met in Israel to get a public relations person to straighten out the stories and
misinformation that was being portrayed in the media. Unfortunately this idea was
met with no response.
These trips to Israel showed Sister Rose's deep love and care for the people of Israel.
She made a total of 54 trips to the country during her life." - Luna Kaufman
"While I worked on Jewish-Christian relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sr. Rose served as a valuable advisor to me in my work and provided helpful guidance on a wide range of related issues, including some of the crises in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue that took place in those years. May her memory be for a blessing!" – Dr. Eugene J. Fisher, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Saint Leo University