A Brief History

A new president, Dr. JoAnne Boyle, had just taken over the leadership of the University in 1987. That summer, Sister Gemma Del Duca, S.C., Ph.D., who had been studying and working in Israel since 1975, was at Seton Hill for an Assembly of the Sisters of Charity. She approached Dr. Boyle with an idea for a Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies.

While interested, Dr. Boyle needed many more specifics about the proposed project. Support from some of the faculty was sought and received, but the one, who could and would be of greatest assistance in formulating the idea, was Sister Mary Noël Kernan, S.C., Ph.D. With Sister Mary Noël's first-hand knowledge of Israel from a recent trip in January of 1987, and with her writing and organizational skills, a draft proposal was soon in Dr. Boyle's hands.

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education was established on the campus of Seton Hill University in 1987. Dr. Boyle's press announcement on November 10, 1987, the 49th anniversary of Kristallnacht -- the "night of broken glass" which signaled the beginning of the Holocaust?marked the Seton Hill Center?s official opening. Seton Hill University initiated this national Catholic movement toward Holocaust studies, in response to the urging of Pope John Paul II to recognize the significance of the SHOAH, the Holocaust, and to "promote the necessary historical and religious studies on this event which concerns the whole of humanity today" (Letter to Archbishop William May, 1987)