‘Mother of Jewish healing’ dies after battle with cancer

Rabbi Rachel Cowan, widely known as the “mother of Jewish healing,” died Friday after a bout with cancer that lasted more than a year and half. She was 77.

A descendant of Mayflower pilgrims, Cowan converted to Judaism after years of marriage to Paul Cowan, a journalist, and together the two became more religious and active members of Manhattan’s Ansche Chesed synagogue.

Following her husband’s death from leukemia in 1988, Cowan formulated an approach to coping with sickness and mourning that would become known as “Jewish healing,” adopting elements of psychology, modern medicine and practices from other religions, including meditation.

“I was looking for wisdom and found that most of the (classic Jewish) commentaries didn’t respond personally to the individual, but spoke of grief as a metaphor for the grief of Israel rather than for individuals,” she told JTA in 1994.

“I realized the need to bridge a gap between the individual in pain and tradition, to create a modern sensibility,” Cowan added.

Rabbi Rachel Cowan with her granddaughter. (Courtesy Lisa Cowan)

She and others would go on to found the Jewish Healing Center, which provides spiritual resources and wisdom to help people deal with the suffering that surrounds personal loss and serious illness.

After she was diagnosed with brain cancer last February, her approach to Jewish healing was deployed on her behalf, with Rabbi Lisa Goldstein of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality organizing a mass prayer for Cowan as she underwent surgery.

“It was a way of providing spiritual support for Rachel. We wanted to help in some way,” Goldstein told The Forward, adding that it appeared to have some success as Cowen said she felt at peace following her surgery.

During her battle with cancer, Cowan appeared in a video last year urging US lawmakers not to ditch the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and cheered when a measure to strike down the legislation failed in the Senate.

“My prime Jewish value is to choose life, to choose how we care for each other. We can’t always finish the fight but we can fight,” she said.

Cowan is survived by her son, daughter, four grandchildren and three siblings.

JTA contributed to this report.