Seton Hall Presents the 19th Evening of Roses on April 29

The Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University will present an original theatrical performance at its 19^th annual Evening of Roses fundraiser.  The performance will be commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman who saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews from dying at the hands of the Nazis.  The program, Remembering Raoul, will be on Sunday, April 29, at 2 p.m. in Jubilee Hall on the campus of Seton Hall University.

In addition to the performance, the Sister Rose Thering Fund (SRTF) will honor Charles Steiner D.O. and Gloria Steiner Ed.D., with its Humanitarian of the Year Award, presented posthumously to their children Charles Steiner, Jr.; Susan Sher and Jeanne Steiner.  The Steiners were founding members of the Sister Rose Thering Fund, and Dr. Charles Steiner served as its first Board chairman in 1994.  With Sister Rose Thering, Charles developed the idea to award scholarships to public and private school teachers who were studying at Seton Hall University’s Jewish-Christian Studies Program. The late beloved Sister Rose was a Seton Hall professor who dedicated herself to fighting ignorance and anti-Semitism through educational remedies.  Sister Rose was instrumental in promoting the State of New Jersey’s mandate to teach Holocaust and Genocide studies at all levels in the schools of New Jersey.

More than 400 educators, impacting more than 160,000 New Jersey students, have participated in the graduate program courses and workshops at Seton Hall University. Many of them have benefited from scholarships offered by the Sister Rose Thering Fund. They take a wide range of classes that cover topics including Jewish history from ancient times to the establishment of the modern state of Israel, the teachings of Vatican II, philosophical perspectives on the Holocaust, values for a pluralistic society, a Jewish perspective on the teachings of Jesus and the meaning of the holy city of Jerusalem to different faiths.

Isabel Gachko, a theology teacher who is also involved with campus ministry at Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a high school for girls in Caldwell, recently said, “Young people are our future!  It is imperative that they understand how their own perspectives have been formed, how to open themselves up to other people’s ideas and to learn how to respond to the challenges of their own opinions.”  Of her classes at Seton Hall, Ms. Gachko said, “I hope to gain a better understanding of all of these topics and bring this knowledge to my students to further expand all of our perspectives.”

As a pre-school teacher with Chabad of Greater Somerset County, SRTF scholarship recipient Kathryn Cruz O’Connell brings her Roman Catholic background to a Jewish school. 

“It has been an incredible experience for me to teach and learn from such observant families,” she said. “The Jewish-Christian Studies program is a wonderful opportunity for me to continue in my professional growth as a teacher and my personal intention of working toward peace.”

Eve S. Morawski, co-chair of the South Orange/Maplewood Annual Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service, is also a lecturer on the Holocaust. She was awarded an SRTF scholarship for the first time in September.  “What I want to explore through the Jewish-Christian Studies Program, especially having visited Auschwitz-Birkenau (concentration camp) last summer, is the religious and philosophic aspects of Christian and Jewish values generally, and toward the Holocaust in particular,” she said.  “I feel I need to have a stronger background in religious context and facts in order to teach in a more meaningful way.  The depth and range of the courses Seton Hall offers in its MA program provides that education.”

An instructor at Newark’s Camden Street School, Kibwe Miller has been able to “disseminate the lessons I have learned as a student” in the Seton Hall Jewish-Christian Studies program. His scholarship has enabled him to learn lessons valuable to him, both professionally and personally.   “I am already engaged in the struggle to combat negative perceptions and stereotypes,” he said.  “I have studied various faith traditions, and gained a greater understanding of the importance of respecting differences.  The study of pluralism in this day and age is vital.”

Dr. David Bossman, SRTF Executive Director, said, “By making it financially possible for teachers to take classes in Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall, we allow them to take part in Jewish-Christian dialogue, learn first-hand about prejudice reduction and understand the causes of the Holocaust. In so doing, they are better equipped to teach these important lessons to their own students. As our 2012 Humanitarians of the Year, Charlie and Gloria will be recognized not only as the strength behind the founding of the Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies, but also for their lifetime efforts in guiding its work.”

SRTF chairman Paul Gibbons will present a Humanitarian of the Year Award, in honor of Raoul Wallenberg, to Honorary Consul General of Sweden David E. R. Dangoor.

The performance segment of the April 29 Evening of Roses, written and produced by Daniel Neiden, will feature selections from the opera Raoul, composed by Gershon Kingsley, as well as a dramatic reading developed from the letters of Raoul Wallenberg. The opera segments will be performed by the Seton Hall University Chamber Choir, under the direction of Maestro Jason Tramm. Gershon Kingsley will also be in attendance.

Benefit ticket packages are available to the 2012 Evening of Roses.  Single admission tickets are $75. Student admission is $25 per person with a valid ID.  For tickets and information, contact the Sister Rose Thering Fund office, 973-761-9006 or SRTF@shu.edu.