Sapling from Anne Frank chestnut tree to be planted at Galloway Township campus

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — A sapling descended from the chestnut tree in front of Anne Frank’s hiding place in Amsterdam will be planted Tuesday, May 20 at Stockton University in remembrance of the former executive director of the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center.

Gail Hirsch Rosenthal was the director of the Holocaust Center from 1991 until her death in October 2023. The tree will honor her dedication to Holocaust education and remembrance. Support for the planting was made possible by Katherine M. and Leo S. Ullman.

The tree will be only the 18th of its kind to be planted in the United States. Over the last 15 years, Anne Frank Center USA has awarded saplings to sites across the United States, including the U.S. Capitol, the United Nations Headquarters and others.

The ceremony is open to the public and will take place at 11 a.m. at the Lakeside Lane Courtyard between the A and C Wings on the Galloway campus. Please RSVP at 609-652-4699 or hrc@stockton.edu.

Those scheduled to speak at the ceremony include:

• Holocaust survivors Leo Ullman and Maud Dahme, who’s also the chair of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
• Toby Rosenthal, Gail’s daughter and a Communication Studies teaching specialist at Stockton
• Michael Berenbaum, author and scholar of the Holocaust and the director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at American Jewish University.

The chestnut tree sapling was provided by Anne Frank Center USA, an organization dedicated to providing educational programs honoring the legacy of Anne Frank. The center’s Sapling Project began in 2009 with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam’s efforts to preserve the original chestnut tree by gathering and germinating chestnuts and donating the sapling to organizations dedicated to Frank’s memory. The original, diseased tree was toppled in a windstorm in 2010 in Amsterdam.