Rose Thering, Led Interfaith Efforts
Sister Rose Thering, a lifelong advocate for improving interfaith relations between Catholics and Jews, died May 5 at the age of 85.
Thering grew up in the largely Catholic town of Plain, Wis., and joined the religious community of the Sisters of St. Dominic at the age of 16. During her doctoral studies at Saint Louis University, she examined how Catholic teaching regards other religious faiths, particularly Judaism. Her research into antisemitism in the church influenced “Nostra Aetate,” the groundbreaking document issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965. The document formally exculpated the Jewish people in the death of Jesus.
In 1968, Thering started an educational outreach program in Jewish-Christian studies at Seton Hall University, making regular trips to Israel and Europe to spread her message of tolerance and interfaith dialogue. She was a prominent advocate for Holocaust education and remembrance, in addition to serving as a national leader in the campaign to free Soviet Jewry.
The 2004 documentary film “Sister Rose’s Passion” chronicled her fight against antisemitism and was nominated for an Academy Award. Thering was honored with numerous awards from various Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee. In 1992, Seton Hall University created the Sister Rose Thering Endowment for Jewish-Christian Studies.
Thering is survived by two brothers and four sisters.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
