American Jewish Committee's Rabbi Noam Marans Receives Prestigious Interfaith Award

Seton Hall University has honored Rabbi Noam Marans, Director of American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Interreligious and Intergroup Relations, with the Sister Rose Thering Award for Outstanding Service in Education for Interreligious Harmony.

The prestigious award was presented at the Sister Rose Thering Fund's annual fundraiser on the Seton Hall campus in South Orange, New Jersey, on May 30.

The Sister Rose Thering Award recognizes Rabbi Marans' exceptional leadership spanning decades in the field of interreligious and Catholic-Jewish relations. Through his dedication to education and dialogue, Rabbi Marans has played a pivotal role in promoting understanding and cooperation between Jews and Catholics.

"It is humbling to be honored with an award bearing Sister Rose Thering's name. Her lifelong work is a living model to all of us who work to advance Catholic-Jewish and wider interreligious relations," said Rabbi Marans.

Rabbi Marans is the immediate past chair of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, recognized by the Vatican and other faith bodies as their dialogue partner representing world Jewry. Rabbi Marans has participated in multiple audiences with Pope Francis and has been the lead Jewish speaker in programs convened by the pontiff on the environment and education. His close collaboration with Seton Hall's Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies (IJCS) and other organizations has helped advance interreligious harmony and combat antisemitism.

IJCS, an AJC partner in the work of interreligious relations, is the oldest institute of its kind in the world, founded in 1958. Today, there are dozens of such institutes across the U.S. and around the world. Its first director, Monsignor John Oesterreicher, was a critical player in the process that led to Nostra Aetate, the Catholic Church document that revolutionized Catholic-Jewish relations and rejected antisemitism.

Sister Rose Thering worked closely with AJC. Her doctoral research at St. Louis University on Catholic textbook portrayals of Jews and Judaism formed the basis for the first of three memoranda AJC submitted to the Second Vatican Council, entitled "The Image of the Jews in Catholic Teaching."

AJC was in a collaborative relationship with Sister Rose from the early 1960s until her death in 2006. She received AJC's Jan Karski Moral Courage Award in 2004 "for her lifelong commitment to Christian-Jewish relations, her unwavering and inexhaustible support for Israel, and her relentless opposition to antisemitism."

The Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies was established in 1993 to promote Sister Rose's legacy of education, dialogue, and understanding between Jews and Christians.

AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York City, 25 offices across the United States, and 14 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC's mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world.

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