Honorees
Our honorees, Jeannie Blaustein & Peter Bokor and Rachel Cowan z”l, have been stalwarts of the BJ community and have generously invested in our spiritual home. Their leadership and dedication have shaped our community to be the vibrant, dynamic, extended BJ family we are today.
Jeannie Blaustein & Peter Bokor
As therapists and in their philanthropic work, Jeannie Blaustein and Peter Bokor have worked for years helping people live their best lives. At BJ, Jeannie and Peter have served as role models for our members over the years, leading by example, and generously sharing their wisdom, work, wealth, and welcome with the community.
Jeannie has held numerous leadership roles across BJ. Soon after joining, she visited the sick, then quickly became the chair of Bikkur Holim. She served as board president, and has remained committed to BJ, guiding us through our strategic planning process in 2014, helping pave the way for current growth and success. In addition, Jeannie and Peter were lead donors for campaigns to purchase and refurbish our Community House. Without them, we would not enjoy BJ Under One Roof as we do today.
Now empty-nesters after raising two daughters at BJ, Jeannie and Peter have each shifted their focus onto new initiatives. For Peter it is protecting our planet, and for Jeannie it is to change the conversation around death and dying in our culture.
As founding board chair of Reimagine End of Life, Jeannie makes use of her training as a PhD in clinical psychology and a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Care to help communities deepen the experience of living and improve the experience of dying. As an advisory board member of OurClimate, Peter helps millennials and youth organize for legislation and social action around the issues of climate change and environmental racism.
In addition to his work with OurClimate, Peter is a trustee (along with Jeannie) of the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation. He initiated its program in Climate Change, which currently focuses on carbon pricing and the environmental concerns of front line communities. A PhD in Molecular Genetics, Peter also earned a Masters in Social Work, which guided his work with homeless men suffering from mental illness and chemical addictions, and with patients at the National Institute of Psychotherapy. In his free time, he’s an avid stone sculptor.
Peter and Jeannie met as students at Brown University, where they both earned their Bachelors of Arts. Peter likes to say he fell in love with classical languages and Jeannie Blaustein, in that order, but not in that order of importance.
Peter and Jeannie’s daughter Sophie is a recent graduate of Carleton College in psychology and neuroscience; and Livia is a rising junior at Yale University studying philosophy and Russian literature.
Rabbi Rachel Cowan
With her kind and caring nature, her profound wisdom, her activism, and through the community institutions and initiatives she helped build, our beloved teacher Rabbi Rachel Cowan shaped a generation’s connection to Jewish spirituality and Jewish justice.
Rachel taught and practiced a spirituality anchored in humanity, activism, and humility. She was instrumental in building the Jewish healing movement and was a pioneer in Jewish mindfulness and in Wise Aging. This past September, Rachel died at age 77 in her Manhattan home after an 18-month struggle with brain cancer.
At BJ, Rachel was instrumental in building our social justice platform through Panim, and in creating and establishing our thriving mindfulness practice. Over the years, she co-led contemplative services at BJ and mindfulness retreats in nature in Costa Rica that meshed meditation, movement, prayer, and social justice.
While her legacy will be long lasting, Rachel was known for living in the moment—and she had the rare ability to make each person feel that they were the person she most wanted to be with at that exact time. She brought joy to so many in our community and was a source of strength when we struggled the most.
Rachel often told of her gratitude for the profound role that BJ played in her life, and before she died she expressed her desire that BJ use her life and memory to raise financial support for BJ. We are extremely touched by her generous gesture and humbled to be a part of her legacy. We look forward to celebrating her life and work at our gala. Next year, we will name the BJ Chapel in Rachel’s honor, creating a holy gathering space dedicated to her continued legacy and commitment to BJ.
Rachel was married to the late Paul Cowan and is survived by their two children, Lisa and Matt, their spouses, Jonathan and Diane, and four grandchildren, Jacob, Tessa, Dante and Miles, as well as her two sisters, Connie and Peggy, and brother, Richard.