A Biographical Sketch
Rosine was born in Bethlehem in 1937 and raised in West Jerusalem until May 1948, when a war forced her family to flee to Bethlehem amid the cracking guns and whistling bombs. Because of the many refugees to Bethlehem, the only choice they had was to live in what had been previously a chicken coup. Her family of six children—the youngest only 40 days old, parents and grandparents—all lived under one roof for a year.
Growing up as a Palestinian refugee was difficult. Rosine’s family struggled for almost two decades. Since jobs were scarce, her father had to leave the country to find work elsewhere, which ended up in failure. They survived on the monthly rations they received from the United Nations Relief and Wok Agency, like thousands of other refugees.
At seventeen, she graduated from high school and was hired by the Jordanian government to teach in Hebron for two years. After that, she was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the North Congregational Church in Phoenix, Arizona, to attend Phoenix College and the Arizona State University. After receiving B.A. (1961) and M.A. (1963) in English, she returned to West Bank and taught at the United Nations Teacher Training College for two years. In 1966, she returned to the United States to teach in Schenectady, NY, for two years as an exchange teacher, after which she came to Canada. She settled in Belle River, Ontario and taught at Belle River District High School and at L’Essor, a total of 28 years.
After retiring from teaching in 1996, she engaged in several educational projects. However, writing was on the mind and in the heart of Rosine. She published her first book, Mustard and Vinegar in 2000. The fifteen short stories of her family and Syriac people in the Middle East met with great success. Even ten years later, people still ask for copies. In 2008, Second Story Press published her first novel, The Madwoman of Bethlehem, a compelling story of a woman, and “a page turner,” as many readers say. It is a novel that comfortably weaves imagination and realities.
She is presently working on a novel, a love story that springs from a kernel of truth that Rosine expands into fiction. It is set in East Jerusalem, Palestine, few years before the 1948 War which, like most wars, disrupted the beautiful lives of a Palestinian Muslim and a Polish young woman whose family immigrated to the Jewish West Jerusalem.
Growing up as a Palestinian refugee was difficult. Rosine’s family struggled for almost two decades. Since jobs were scarce, her father had to leave the country to find work elsewhere, which ended up in failure. They survived on the monthly rations they received from the United Nations Relief and Wok Agency, like thousands of other refugees.
At seventeen, she graduated from high school and was hired by the Jordanian government to teach in Hebron for two years. After that, she was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the North Congregational Church in Phoenix, Arizona, to attend Phoenix College and the Arizona State University. After receiving B.A. (1961) and M.A. (1963) in English, she returned to West Bank and taught at the United Nations Teacher Training College for two years. In 1966, she returned to the United States to teach in Schenectady, NY, for two years as an exchange teacher, after which she came to Canada. She settled in Belle River, Ontario and taught at Belle River District High School and at L’Essor, a total of 28 years.
After retiring from teaching in 1996, she engaged in several educational projects. However, writing was on the mind and in the heart of Rosine. She published her first book, Mustard and Vinegar in 2000. The fifteen short stories of her family and Syriac people in the Middle East met with great success. Even ten years later, people still ask for copies. In 2008, Second Story Press published her first novel, The Madwoman of Bethlehem, a compelling story of a woman, and “a page turner,” as many readers say. It is a novel that comfortably weaves imagination and realities.
She is presently working on a novel, a love story that springs from a kernel of truth that Rosine expands into fiction. It is set in East Jerusalem, Palestine, few years before the 1948 War which, like most wars, disrupted the beautiful lives of a Palestinian Muslim and a Polish young woman whose family immigrated to the Jewish West Jerusalem.
