Carol Rittner R.S.M.

Education      
Carol Rittner, RSM received a B.A. in English (1967) from College Misericordia; an M.A. in English (1972) from the University of Maryland; an Ed.D. in Educational Administration (1978) from The Pennsylvania State University; and a MTS degree in Theological Studies (1991) from St. John’s Seminary, Detroit, MI. 

Professional Experience    
Dr. Rittner is Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies Emerita and the Dr. Marsha Radicoff Grossman Professor of Holocaust Studies Emerita, Stockton University of New Jersey (USA. Prior to coming to Stockton University, Dr. Rittner was an administrator at Mt. Aloysius Junior College, Cresson, PA (1973-74) and at Mercy College of Detroit (1974-1986), where she also was a member of the Adjunct Faculty and taught Holocaust Studies. In 1984, she began working Elie Wiesel, then-Chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council (USHMC) in Washington, DC, where she organized an international conference, “Faith in Humankind: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust.” During 1986-87, Dr. Rittner again worked with Professor Wiesel and the USHMC organizing the international conference, “The Other Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis.”

After he received the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel established The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New York City. In May 1987, he invited Dr. Rittner to be its first Director, where she remained until the end of 1990. As Director of the Foundation, Dr. Rittner organized various international conferences: “Facing the 21st Century: Threats & Promises” (Paris, France, 1988), “The Anatomy of Hate” (Boston University, Boston, MA, 1989), “Education Against Hate: An Imperative for Our Time” (University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, 1990).

In February 1991, Dr. Rittner was appointed to the staff of The Inner City Trust in Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland. Working with The Inner City Trust, she organized two international conferences, “Beyond Hate: Living with Our Deepest Differences” (Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland, 1992), and “Men, Women and War” (Magee College, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, 1997). In 1994, Dr. Rittner was appointed as an international consultant to Holywell Trust, a community development organization in Derry, a group with whom she worked until 2004.

In 1994, Dr. Rittner also was invited to be the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Holocaust Studies at The Richard Stockton College (now Stockton University) of New Jersey. In 1995, she was appointed Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at Stockton College, and, in February 1999, Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies. Between 2002 and 2015, Dr. Rittner directed the Undergraduate Minor in Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Stockton, and between 2006 and 2008, she also was the Director of the MA Program in Holocaust & Genocide Studies (MAHG program). In September 2009, she was named The Dr. Marcia R. Grossman Professor in Holocaust Studies. She “retired” from Stockton University in 2015. She was appointed Emerita Professor upon her retirement. She continued to teach on-line graduate courses for Stockton’s MA Program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies until Fall 2023.

In the Spring of 2016, she was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA. In the Summer 2016, Dr. Rittner was Visiting Adjunct Professor in Holocaust Studies at The College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ.

Dr. Rittner and Dr. John K. Roth (Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA) have organized several scholarly seminars, all of which resulted in books: “What’s the ‘Good News’ After Auschwitz?” (Misericordia University, Dallas, PA, 1999); “Pope Pius XII, the Vatican, and the Holocaust” (King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 2000); “The Church and Genocide: Rwanda, 1994” (Aegis Trust, London, England); “Rape: Weapon of War & Genocide” (Campion Hall, Oxford University, UK); “Teaching about Rape as a Weapon of War & Genocide” (Campion Hall, Oxford University, UK); and “Advancing Holocaust Studies” (Mercy Center, St. Louis, MO, March 2019). In 2020, they organized a scholar’s seminar in St. Louis, MO on the topic “Advancing Holocaust Studies.”

Publications
Carol Rittner, RSM is the editor or co-editor of numerous books: The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust (New York: New York University Press, 1986; Reprinted in Japanese: Simul Press, Japan, 1997, and Kawade Shobo Shinsha Press, Japan, 2019); Elie Wiesel: Between Memory and Hope (New York University Press, 1990; Japanese edition, Simul Press, Tokyo,1990;); Memory Offended: The Auschwitz Convent Controversy (co-edited with John K. Roth] Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991); Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust (co-edited with Dr. Roth; NY: Paragon, 1993); From the Unthinkable to the Unavoidable (co-edited with John K. Roth; Westport, CT: Greenwood Publications, 1997); Anne Frank in the World: Essays and Reflections (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe Publications, 1998);  Beyond Hate: Living With Our Deepest Differences and An International Journey of Coexistence (both published by YES! Publications, 1999); The Holocaust and the Christian World (London: Kuperad Publishing Ltd., 2000, and New York: Continuum, 2001), co-edited with Stephen Smith and Irena Steinfeldt; What’s the “Good News” After Auschwitz?, co-edited with John K. Roth (Mercer University Press, 2001), Pius XII and the Holocaust (University of Leicester Press/Continuum Publishers, London and New York, 2002), Will Genocide Ever End? (Minneapolis, MN: Paragon House, 2002), co-edited with John K. Roth and James Smith; and Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches? (Minneapolis, MN: Paragon House, 2004). Dr. Rittner also was a member of the project team and the editorial committee for the book, Beyond the ‘Never Agains’ published by the Swedish government (2005). In May 2009, Dr. Rittner and Dr. Stephen Smith co-edited No Going Back: Letters to Pope Benedict XVI on the Holocaust, Christian-Jewish Relations and the State of Israel (Laxton, UK: Quill Press, 2009); Learn Teach Prevent: Holocaust Education in the 21^st Century (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University Press, 2010); Are Women Human? Violence Against Women (NY: Mercy Global Concern, 2011); Rape As A Weapon of War (Minneapolis/St. Paul: Paragon House, 2012); Holocaust Education: Challenges for the Future (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University Press, 2014); Teaching About Rape in War and Genocide (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); Teaching About the Holocaust and Genocide (Galloway, NJ: Stockton University, 2016); and The Holocaust and Nostra Aetate: Toward A Greater Understanding (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University Press, 2017). The 2^nd edition of her co-edited book, The Holocaust and the Christian World was published by Paulist Press in January 2019. In January 2020, her edited book, Women, the Holocaust and Genocide was published (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University Press). Routledge Press will publish the book she co-edited with John K. Roth, Advancing Holocaust Studies (2021). In 2022, Dr. Rittner was the co-editor of The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and Her Contributions to Holocaust Studies (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University Press), and in 2023, she co-edited Pluralizing Dialogue: Insights, Actions, and Implications in Eva Fleischner’s Judaism in German Christian Theology Since 1945 (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University Press).

Other Publications
Dr. Rittner’s Documentary Discussion Guide, Denmark 1943: The Rescue of Denmark’s Jews, was published by Dimensions, a journal of Holocaust Studies, in 1993. Drs. Rittner and Roth also wrote a monograph, The Impact of the Holocaust, published by the Institute for Christian Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD (1994). In 1998, she wrote a Teacher’s Guide to accompany a five-part video series, Teaching about the Holocaust & Genocide (Pomona, NJ: The Richard Stockton College of NJ, 1998), funded in part by a grant from the Katz Foundation. She also authored a booklet for teachers entitled, Anne Frank: An Enduring Legacy (Derry, Northern Ireland: YES! Publications, 1999). With Dr. Wendy Whitworth as her co-writer and co-editor, Dr. Rittner produced a six-part, full-color poster series and Teacher’s Guide, British Righteous Before and During the Holocaust (London and Newark, UK: HMD and Beth Shalom, 2006).

Dr. Rittner was the Associate Editor of The Genocide Forum, A Platform for Post-Holocaust Commentary (New York). She also served on as a member of the Editorial Board of MAST, the Journal of the Mercy Association in Scripture and Theology (Burlingame, CA), and was the Editor of The Aegis Review on Genocide (published by the Aegis Trust, UK). She also was the Editor of Perspectives, a Holocaust journal published in the UK. She is the Editor of Mercy Words, an on-line publication that explores ideas and questions in theology, religious studies, scripture, spirituality, and politics.

Films              
Dr. Rittner initiated and is the Executive Producer for the films, The Courage to Care (1986), nominated for a 1986 Academy Award in the Short Documentary Film category; The Triumph of Memory (1988) which won a number of awards, including a Golden Globe; and Sisters (2013), shown on various PBS stations in 2013-2014. She worked with Rob Gardner (Baltimore, MD: Robert Gardner Films) on all three documentary films. In addition, with Dr. John K. Roth, Dr. Rittner is a principal in the documentary film, Rape: Weapon of War produced by Facing History & Ourselves, Brookline, MA (October 2014). In June 2023, she initiated and worked with WVIA, the PBS television station in NE Pennsylvania on the program, Holocaust Warnings: American Antisemitism and Extremism.

Study Missions
Between 1990 and 2010, Dr. Rittner led many study missions of Christian nuns, priests, and lay people to Israel to meet Israeli Jews, Muslims, Druse, and Christians, as well as to meet Palestinians in Bethlehem, in order to lean about and to discuss on-going obstacles and possibilities for peace in the region. In May 2012, with Dr. Mary Jo Leddy from Regis College of the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, she co-led a study mission of Canadian graduate students to Berlin and Auschwitz. In March 2013, with Dr. Michael Hayse and Ms. Gail Rosenthal from Stockton University, she helped to lead a study trip of South Jersey community leaders and educators to Germany and Holland to learn about the Holocaust.

Organizations and Boards
Dr. Rittner was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, New York, NY (1990 – 2002). Between 1999 and 2003, she was a member of the Executive Committee of The Aegis Trust, a UK-based initiative for the prevention of genocide. Between January 2002 and June 2009, she was the Chairperson of the Board of Mercy Global Concern at the United Nations, New York, NY. In September 2012, she was invited to be an inaugural Associate of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Human Rights Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, Florida (USA). She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA).

Dr. Rittner is a member of the Board of Trustees at Misericordia University, Dallas, PA (1994 – present). She also has served as a member of the Boards of Trustees at Georgian Count University, Lakewood, NJ (2006-2012) and the University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT (2009-2012).  

Honors           
Dr. Rittner is the recipient of The Richard Stockton College’s Ida E. King Medallion (1996) for outstanding scholarship and international service to the human community. In November 1998, she was honored by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge with the Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania medal. In June 2008, Dr. Rittner was honored by the Conference for Mercy Higher Education, a consortium of 16 Mercy colleges and universities, with the Mercy Higher Education Award. In 2023, she was honored by The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA with its American Spirit Medallion.

Dr. Carol Rittner RSM has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Misericordia University, Dallas, PA (1990), King’s College, Wilkes Barre, PA (1999), Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ (2002), and The College of St. Mary, Omaha, NB (2011).

In December 2015 a Professorship in Holocaust & Genocide Studies was named in her honor at Stockton University.

Dr. Rittner has lectured widely in the USA, as well as in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Israel, Ireland, England, Sweden, Palestine, France, and South Africa.