—December 2nd Event Includes Panel Discussion, Moderated by Rabbi Marc Margolius, and Featuring Filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman, Khary Lazarre-White, and Jeannie Blaustein—
—RSVP at https://mjhnyc.org/events/the-light-and-legacy-of-rachel-cowan/—
(New York, NY)— This December 2, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present a special screening of the documentary film, Dying Doesn’t Feel Like What I’m Doing, chronicling the life and legacy of civil rights activist and community organizer Rachel Cowan.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Rabbi Marc Margolius, Senior Program Director at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, with filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman, Khary Lazarre-White, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Brotherhood Sister Sol, and Jeannie Blaustein, Founding Board Chair at Reimagine End of Life.
The event is co-sponsored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, with presenting partners B’nai Jeshurun, Tricycle Foundation, and the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.
Rachel Cowan was a civil rights activist, community organizer, the first female Jew by choice ordained as a Rabbi, and a beloved and influential mindfulness teacher. After she was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer, her years of mindfulness practice enabled her to model living well while dying.
The film provides an intimate portrait of Rabbi Cowan, a beloved and influential mindfulness teacher, stalwart in New York City’s Jewish community and the first female convert to be ordained a rabbi at Hebrew Union College. She was a civil rights activist who taught people how to ”sit” with themselves and stand up for others. She and her late husband, Village Voice writer Paul Cowan, were instrumental in encouraging support of intermarried couples.
Widowed at 48 years old, she had a powerful second act. As the first director of Jewish Life at the Nathan Cummings foundation, she transformed Jewish philanthropy. As a founder of the Jewish Healing Network, The institute of Jewish Spirituality and The Wise Aging movement, she transformed Jewish life by bringing mindfulness and meditation into the mainstream.
After she was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer and used her spiritual practice to navigate her death while looking back on her full life, using her terminal illness to teach others how to die well. She passed away on August 31, 2018.
American born, Jerusalem based, documentary filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman was a close friend of Rabbi Cowan. She has produced and directed dozens of films which have been screened in Jewish Film Festivals throughout the world.
The event is being held in-person on Thursday, December 2nd starting at 6:45 PM, and seating is limited. Tickets are $10 and more information, visit https://mjhnyc.org/events/the-light-and-legacy-of-rachel-cowan/.
All in-person events this season will be livestreamed and available virtually for audiences around the world. For information about health and safety requirements due to COVID-19, please visit https://mjhnyc.org/visitor-information/. And for more information and a full calendar of events, visit the Museum’s events page at https://mjhnyc.org/current-events/.
During in-person events, the Museum’s LOX at Café Bergson will be open for brunch, lunch, and
dinner, serving its Museum-made smoked salmon and other kosher delicacies.
About the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York’s contribution to the global responsibility to never forget. The Museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The third largest Holocaust museum in the world and the second largest in North America, the Museum of Jewish Heritage anchors the southernmost tip of Manhattan, completing the cultural and educational landscape it shares with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage maintains a collection of almost 40,000 artifacts, photographs, documentary films, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms, a 375-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a resource center for educators, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. The Museum is the home of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.
The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.