The Sister Rose Thering Fund for Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University held its annual signature philanthropic event, Evening of Roses on June 12, 2025. The annual Gala raises money for graduate scholarships for educators working in grades K through 12. The full tuition scholarships are given to teachers and educators to study in Seton Hall’s graduate certificate program in Jewish-Christian Studies to stem the tide of ignorance in our schools and in society while honoring those who advance the legacy of Sister Rose Thering, O.P., Ph.D., by fostering understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christians and people of other religious traditions through advocacy and education.
Celebrating the legacy of Sister Rose Thering, O.P., Ph.D., at the 2025 Evening of Roses Gala.
Rev. Dr. Forrest M. Pritchett, director of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Program and the University Gospel Choir at Seton Hall, received the Sister Rose Thering Fund Clergy Award. A native of Atlantic City, NJ, Pritchett was lauded as a civil rights icon, educator and religious leader, who is and has always been, a partner in the work and mission of the Sister Rose Thering Fund.
Rev. Dr. Forrest Pritchett receiving 2025 SRTF Clergy Award from Anthony C. Sciglitano, Jr., Exec. Dir., SRTF.
Pritchett shared that during his early decades at Seton Hall, he was mentored by Sister Rose Thering and Bishop Joseph Francis of the Archdiocese of Newark. Anyone fortunate enough to be in conversation with him sees the world open up with lessons of hope, of empowerment and of the difference an individual can make when encountering injustice.
Mira Berenbaum congratulated her father, Rabbi Dr. Michael Berenbaum for receiving the Humanities and Holocaust Education Award.
As someone who has inspired generations of Pirates through his many roles and has contributed greatly to numerous campus organizations, the University continues to embrace Pritchett as a servant leader and a pillar of the campus community who has helped to challenge the University to be and do better.
Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, distinguished professor and director of the Sigi Ziering Institute of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University received the Sister Rose Thering Fund Award in the Humanities and Holocaust Education. He has created Holocaust and human rights museums on three continents and in several American cities and headed the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The author and editor of 24 books, he was the executive editor of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.
Deborah Lerner Duane, Heather Mecka and Monsignor Anthony Ziccardi at the event.
In addition to serving as project director overseeing the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the first director of its Research Institute, Rabbi Berenbaum later served as President and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which took the testimony of 52,000 Holocaust survivors in 32 languages and 57 countries. He has developed and curated museums in the United States, Mexico, North Macedonia and Poland and his award-winning exhibition “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away” has been in Madrid and Malmo, New York, Kansas City, the Ronald Regan Library in California and will soon open in Boston.
Watch the event here: https://youtu.be/MQ4Wf_WLxY4
