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Seton Hall University

History

BACKGROUND OF THE SISTER ROSE THERING FUND

Rose Menorah

"To be a better Christian, you need to find out where you are rooted. Take a good look at Judaism. Our roots are in Judaism. Jewish people have much to teach us. We must learn from our elder brothers and sisters."– Sister Rose Thering

  • 1953 - Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher arrives at Seton Hall and establishes the Institute for Judaeo-Christian Studies.
  • 1968 - Sister Rose Thering, O.P., Ph.D. is hired by Monsignor Oesterreicher to coordinate his programs both on campus and in the community.
  • 1970-early 2000's - Sister Rose organizes and leads 54  tours to Israel for teachers and lay people.
  • 1975 - Founding of Department of Jewish-Christian Studies offering Master's degree in that subject area
  • Sister Rose teaches in the College of Education and Human Resources for more than 30 years
  • 1985 - David M. Bossman, Ph.D. arrives at Seton Hall, serves as Provost and Chair of the Department of Jewish-Christian Studies
  • 1993 - Friends of Sister Rose establish an endowment in her honor that offers scholarships to teachers to take graduate courses in the department.  The program is overseen by a board of trustees, by-laws are written and approved, funds are raised through the Evening of Roses when honorary degrees in Humane Letters and Humanitarian of the Year Awards are bestowed on individuals who contribute to fostering and improving interfaith relations
  • 1994 - The State of New Jersey, under then Governor Christine Todd Whitman, establishes a mandate that requires teaching about the Holocaust and genocides in all schools, grade K-12, in New Jersey.  Sister Rose, and early advocate for this program, is appointed one of the founding members of the New Jersey Commission  on Holocaust Education, one of the first such commissions in the United States.
  • 2006 -  Sister Rose Thering, O.P, Ph.D., dies on May 6, and is buried in her native home of Racine, Wisconsin.
  • 2011 - The name of the organization is changed to the Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies in order to clarify its purpose and establish its mission of advancing Sister Rose's legacy of fostering understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christian and people of other religious traditions through advocacy and education.
  • During its current twenty-three years, the Fund (as it is now known) has offered scholarships to well over 400 teachers who have taken the knowledge gained back to their classrooms where they have had an impact in reducing prejudice among their thousands of students.