Rabbi Rachel Cowan

Join Michael Lerner for an exploration of spiritual biography with Rabbi Rachel Cowan, known nationally as a pioneer of contemplative practice in Judaism. She co-founded the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and served as its executive director from 2004 to 2011. Her latest book (co-authored with Dr. Linda Thal) is Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience, & Spirit. It offers tools to navigate the challenges of aging with warmth, humor, and wisdom. Presented by Point Reyes Books and the New School at Commonweal.

About Rabbi Rachel Cowan: Rabbi Rachel Cowan, formerly the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, is working on a special project on aging with wisdom. She was named by Newsweek Magazine in 2007 and in 2010 as one of the 50 leading rabbis in the United States, and by the Forward in 2010 as one of the 50 leading women rabbis. She was featured in the PBS series The Jewish Americans. She received her ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1989. From 1990-2003 she was program director for Jewish Life and Values at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Her work has been included in Moment and Sh’ma as well as in anthologies, including Illness and Health in the Jewish Tradition: Writings from the Bible to Today, and The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. She is the author, with her late husband Paul Cowan, of Mixed Blessings: Untangling the Knots in an Interfaith Marriage. Her most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Linda Thal and called Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit, was published in June 2015.

About The New School at Commonweal: The New School presents conversations, book signings, art, and lectures with thought and action leaders of our time. It is a learning community of 3,000 people in the Bay Area and around the world dedicated to learning what matters. Most events are free, and so are its podcasts and videos—200 on iTunes, Vimeo, and our Library.