Third Clergy Search Committee: Meet Rabbi Cowans

About Rabbi Cowans

Rabbi Cowans grew up in the Chicago area, holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Spanish from Duke University and a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She expects to be ordained as a rabbi and to be awarded a certificate in Pastoral Care and Counseling by the Jewish Theological Seminary this May. She has served as the Youth and Family Programs Director, Youth Director, and Family Programs Director at Congregation Anshe Chesed in New York City, as well as a Rabbinic Intern at the Cornell University Hillel, High Holiday Rabbi at Northwestern University Hillel, Director of Education at Camp Ramah in the Rockies, and Program Director at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. She has also served in New York as a Chaplain Intern at the Exodus Transitional Community for formerly incarcerated individuals and at MJHS Hospice Care. As an Intern at Bioversity International in Kampala, Uganda, she developed a survey tool to assess agrobiodiversity for a nutrition research program, and as Youth Program Advisor at Tevel b’Tzedek in Kathmandu, Nepal she designed leadership development programs for youth and local professionals. She was a Global Service Corp Fellow at the Joint Distribution Committee in Jerusalem, where she designed programs for African asylum-seekers, and a Legal Assistant at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition/Avodah, in Washington D.C., where she recruited and trained more than 200 volunteers to visit area jails and conducted weekly visits to detention centers. She is a featured contributor to the English Edition of 929 Daily Tanach Online, an exceptional Torah reader and a yoga and meditation instructor, and she loves storytelling.

 

Schedule

Friday from 5:30-6:30pm 
WJC Kabbalat Shabbat
Use the link below to join us for a gathering to welcome Shabbat. This experience will include meditation, singing, and prayers to help heal us from the week that was and bring us into Shabbat with hope, peace and a sense of community. To join the meeting click on the following link at 5:25pm or later. 

https://zoom.us/j/441212553
By Phone: 1-646-558-8656 • Meeting ID: 441 212 553

 

Saturday from 8:30-9:00pm 
Havdalah with WJC
Join us as Rabbi Cowans leads us in the traditional Havdalah ritual so that we can send out the sweetness of Shabbat together and prepare for the week to come.

https://zoom.us/j/439047601
By Phone: 1-646-558-8656 • Meeting ID: 439 047 601

 

Sunday from 10:00-11:30am 
Sermon and Q&A with Rabbi Cowans
This meeting will start at 10:00am with Rabbi Cowans delivering a sermon on Saturday’s parsha “Ki Tisa.” This will be in place of hearing her deliver the sermon on Saturday morning. Following the sermon Marty Marcus and Mia Mandel will conduct a Q&A similar to the ones we have been doing live for previous candidates. We hope you will join us to get to know Rabbi Cowans better and gauge how she might fit as a member of our clergy team.

https://zoom.us/j/570072755
By Phone: 1-646-558-8656 • Meeting ID: 570 072 755