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Dr. Rose Thering, O.P. (1920-2006)
NCLCI Board of Directors Vice President (1978-1988, 1995-2006)
NCLCI Executive Director: 1988 – 1995

An activist, scholar and teacher, Sister Rose Thering dedicated her life to improving Christian-Jewish relations. As a young girl she was uncomfortable with the message of Christian intolerance toward Jews that she was exposed to in Catholic schools. Most pre-Vatican II religious texts portrayed Jews as the people who killed Jesus. At St. Louis University, her doctoral study focused on how Catholic teaching materials dealt with ethnic groups and other faiths, primarily Jews and Judaism. Her research contributed to the deliberations during Vatican II that produced the Vatican document Nostra Aetate (1965), a declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions.

Sister Rose was a tireless lecturer raising awareness of the tenets of Judaism and Catholicism and helping to eradicate intolerance. She earned more than 80 humanitarian awards including the Anti-Defamation League’s Cardinal Bea Interfaith Award (2004), the first woman to receive the award; and the prestigious Jerusalem Award (1987), which was presented to her by Mayor Teddy Kollek. She led over 60 tours to Israel. She also testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of the bill that would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

• 1920 – Rose Thering born in Plain, Wisconsin (Aug. 9).
• 1936 – Rose Thering enters the St. Catherine of Siena Convent as an Aspirant in Racine, WI.
• 1938 – Rose Thering becomes a novice at St. Catherine of Siena.
• 1940 – Sister Rose takes her first vows and enters the Dominican order. She begins her teaching career at St. Aloysius School in Saux City, WI, teaching the third grade.
• 1943 – Sister Rose transfers to Wausaukee, WI, to teach 60 students in grades four through six.
• 1946 – Sister Rose takes final vows and begins teaching at Holy Name School (sixth grade) in Racine, WI.
• 1948 – Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel (May 14).
• 1950 – Knesset establishes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
• 1952 – Sister Rose becomes Mistress of Aspirants at St. Catherine of Siena Convent.
• 1950s – During the summers, Sister Rose completes her master’s degree at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.
• 1957 – Sister Rose begins her doctoral studies at St. Louis University in St. Louis, MO. Her research focuses on how Catholic religious teaching materials present other faith, racial and national groups.
• 1961 – Sister Rose receives her Ph.D. from St. Louis University.
• 1962 – Pope John XXIII convenes the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council – “Vatican II”.
• 1965 – Vatican II adjourns under Pope Paul VI after adopting Nostra Aetate: The Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to non-Christian Religions, due in large part to Sister Rose Thering’s doctoral thesis. Nostra Aetate formally brings to an end the church’s accusation that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus (Oct. 28).
• 1967 – Jerusalem is reunited under Israeli control.
• 1968 – Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher invites Sister Rose to the Institute of Judeao-Christian Studies as Coordinator of Special Programs at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ.
• 1970 – Sister Rose makes her first of 54 trips to Israel for study, teaching and reflection.
• 1972 – Sister Rose, under the auspices of Seton Hall University, organizes the first of many Menorah Studies Tour, 30-day study tours of Israel for educators from across the United States.
• 1973 – Sister Rose becomes a full-time professor in the School of Education at Seton Hall University.
• 1978 – Sister Rose Thering joins the Rev. Drs. Franklin Littell, David Lewis, Arnold Olson and Bill Harter in founding the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI).
• 1979 – Pope John Paul II visits Warsaw and Auschwitz, the first Pope to visit a Nazi death camp, and in so doing sends a strong message to the Christian world regarding the need to confront and atone for the sins committed against Jews.
• 1982 – Sister Rose visits the Nazi death camps in Poland. The New Jersey Holocaust Education Commission convenes under Governor Thomas Kean for the purpose of promoting Holocaust education in public, private and parochial schools. Governor Kean appoints Sister Rose to the Commission, an appointment that is renewed by Governors Florio, Whitman, DiFrancesco, McGreevy and Codey.
• 1986 – Sister Rose travels to Vienna to protest Kurt Waldheim’s inauguration as president of Austria following revelations that Waldheim’s World War II army unit committed atrocities in Yugoslavia. Sister Rose and other protesters are roughed up in a confrontation during the inauguration protest. Later, at the airport, Sister Rose is singled out for especially crude “security” measures. The next day The New York Post headline reads, “Strip-Search by Austrians – Jersey Nun Humiliated in Vienna” (July 11).
• 1988 – Sister Rose becomes Professor Emerita of Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University.
• 1989 – Sister Rose is named the Executive Director of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI), succeeding the Rev. Isaac Rottenberg.
• 1993 – Seton Hall University establishes the Sister Rose Thering Endowment for Jewish Studies, dedicated to fostering Christian-Jewish understanding through education and inter-religious cooperation. This is done primarily by providing financial assistance for teachers in public, private and parochial schools to take classes in the University’s Graduate Department of Jewish-Christian Studies.
• 1994 – Sister Rose visits Warsaw and Auschwitz, Birkenau, Madjanek and other Nazi concentration camps with Jewish leaders from MetroWest of New Jersey. Later, the group joins over 500 other Jewish leaders in Israel. Sister Rose travels to Jordan to meet with King Hussein.
• 1994 – Israel and the Holy See establish diplomatic relations.
• 1995 – Sister Rose retires as Executive Director of NCLCI, succeeded by David Blewett, and begins full-time work with the Sister Rose Thering Endowment. She is immediately elected to the NCLCI Board of Directors as a Vice-President.
• 1995 – Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at peace rally in Tel Aviv.
• 2000 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first Pope to visit Israel and pray at the Western Wall where he places a prayer for repentance affirming that antisemitism has no place in Christianity.
• 2002 – Sister Rose makes her 54th and final trip to Israel traveling with the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel.
• 2003 – Production begins on the documentary film Sister Rose’s Passion.
• 2004 – Sister Rose’s Passion is honored as the Best Documentary Short at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.
• 2005 – Sister Rose’s Passion is nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short.
• 2006 – Sister Rose Thering dies in Racine, WI (May 6).