‘Roses’ humanitarian

Joshua Bell, widely regarded as one of the premier violinists of the modern era, displays his 2010 Seton Hall University Humanitarian of the Year Award, presented to him at the Sister Rose Thering Endowment Evening of Roses benefit.

With Bell, who performed at the event — held April 18 at the South Orange Performing Arts Center — are Holocaust survivor Luna Kaufman, past endowment chair, and Metropolitan Opera bass Kevin Maynor, who also performed.

Bell was honored for his special relationship with Israel and the Jewish world, most notably for his part in two extraordinary concerts held last year in Poland. As featured artist at the seventh annual Bronislaw Hubermann Violin Festival in Czestochowa, he participated in the dedication of a memorial to the city’s Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Bell also performed in Warsaw at a benefit concert for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, scheduled to open in 2012 at the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto.

The endowment was established in 1993 to perpetuate the inter-religious education work of Sister Rose Thering in funding graduate scholarship assistance for teachers in Jewish-Christian and Holocaust studies, developing teaching resource materials, and presenting workshops for teachers in public, private, and parochial schools.

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