Galloway, N.J. — Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez has spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to memorialize his mentor and friend Gail Hirsch Rosenthal.

Rosenthal was the director of the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University from 1991 until her death in October 2023.

“The more I thought about it, the more I thought about not just a memorial on campus, but a living memorial,” said Moreno-Rodriguez, who succeeded Rosenthal as the center’s director in 2024. “Something that could provide comfort and serenity. Something that could provide an environment for students to remember and to learn.”

He also remembered how Rosenthal was devoted to teaching the story of Anne Frank, whose diary written during her time hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam has become one of the most well-known accounts of the Holocaust.

“I had heard of the work of the Anne Frank Center USA and their Sapling Project, and I just thought a tree grown from the chestnut tree Anne saw outside a window of the Secret Annex and mentioned in her diary would be perfect,” Moreno-Rodriguez said.

The Sapling Project began in 2009 as an effort to preserve the original tree in Amsterdam by gathering and germinating chestnuts and donating the saplings to organizations dedicated to Frank’s memory. Earlier this year, Anne Frank Center USA approved Stockton as only the 18th location of a sapling in the United States, and the tree was planted in a courtyard on campus during a May 20 ceremony.

Other saplings have been planted at such well-known places as the U.S. Capitol and Liberty Park in New York City next to One World Trade Center. But Anne Frank Center USA CEO Lauren Bairnsfather wants the trees to have a larger role than just being a remembrance.

“I like that we have trees at places of historic significance. I think that’s wonderful,” she said in an interview earlier this month. “But I want to be sure that we’re putting them in places where they become a part of an institution’s identity. Where we know that people will go out and have a space for contemplation.”

The tree at Stockton will be the centerpiece of a proposed new outside courtyard for students to gather to study or take a break from classes.

“We plant this tree with a hope that it will also inspire students, faculty, staff, visitors and all members of the Stockton community to believe in Anne’s message that mankind is inherently good in the face of adversity and especially the horrors of the Holocaust,” said Leo Schoffer, a former member of Stockton’s Board of Trustees and the son of Sara and Sam Schoffer.

Schoffer addressed a crowd of more than 200 people at the ceremony, including Holocaust survivors, Egg Harbor Township elementary school students and members of Rosenthal’s family.

Rosenthal’s daughter Toby, a Communication Studies instructor at Stockton, said with a laugh that her mother “would have both loved and hated this beautiful morning because her name kept coming up.”

“I know how much she loved Amsterdam and the beauty of the city. I had the opportunity to travel with her there,” Toby said after the ceremony. “And so, when I see this tree here, I will remember those times and how much she not only loved her work here on campus, but also all over the world.”

One of the Holocaust survivors at the ceremony was Leo Ullman, a long-time supporter of the Holocaust Resource Center. He and his wife, Katherine, funded one of its primary exhibits “The Extraordinary Heroism of Ordinary People,” which tells the history of the Holocaust in the Netherlands through Ullman’s family, who were saved by the heroic acts of non-Jewish families.

“Gail was just a wonderful, wonderful person. She did so much for this university and so much for the story of Anne Frank to be remembered,” said Ullman, who with his wife provided the financial backing for the tree to be planted at Stockton. “We are very proud of Stockton’s Holocaust Resource Center. You can all be proud of this wonderful university.”

Stockton President Joe Bertolino praised Rosenthal’s visionary leadership as she grew the center from modest beginnings into a globally recognized institution.

“This tree, rooted now in Stockton’s soil, will serve as a living tribute,” he said. “It will stand as a reminder of the enduring human spirit, of hope in the face of unimaginable adversity, and of the urgent responsibility we all share to remember the past and build a more just and compassionate future.”

Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum spoke about how Gail Rosenthal built the center “with grace, with determination, with commitment and 24/7 dedication.”

“Every time we worked together, the first, second and third concern were the students of this university,” he said.

And Berenbaum couldn’t think of a better way to remember his friend than with a tree that will grow roots deep into the ground of Stockton’s Galloway campus.

“The roots that Gail planted at this university go deep and go to the core of this university,” he said during the ceremony. “And the branches will spread out all over the globe as Stockton University students go out and make their mark on the world. They will remember the values associated with the Holocaust and the values that are deeply associated with this university.

“This is an incredible legacy, and to unite Anne Frank, that tree and Gail Rosenthal is a splendid moment in the life of this university.”

— Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Bernard DeLury