Paul Cowan (1940–1988) was a New York-based journalist, staff writer forThe Village Voice, and the author of several books, including a memoir of his reconnection to his Jewish roots and a guide tointerfaith marriages.^[1][2][3]

Born on September 21, 1940, Paul Cowan was the child ofLouis G. Cowan, a television producer who later became president ofCBS, andPauline “Polly” Spiegel Cowan, an heir to theSpiegel Catalog company, granddaughter ofJoseph Spiegel.^[1][4] While both of his parents were Jewish, Cowan was not raised with any observance of Jewish traditions, a fact that was to become important in his later writing and community involvement.^[5] He attendedChoate preparatory school and graduated fromHarvard University.^[2]

After college, Cowan spent two years in thePeace Corps and in 1970 wrote a book about his experiences inEcuador,The Making of an Un-American.^[1] He joined theVillage Voice as a staff writer and wrote about thecivil rights movement, coal miners inKentucky, poverty-stricken older Jews in New York City, the Mexican border city ofCiudad Juárez, andVietnam War protests.^[1] After his parents died in a fire in 1978, Cowan began to investigate his Jewish roots and discovered that his grandparents on his father's side were Orthodox Jews from Lithuania, his family's real name had been Cohen, and his great-great-grandfather had been a rabbi.^[1] He embraced his Jewish roots^[6] and wrote a book about his journey of discovery,An Orphan in History: Retrieving a Jewish Legacy in 1982.^[7][8][9] He and his wife, along with others, worked to start a Jewish school and revitalize an historic synagogue inManhattan. In 1987 he publishedMixed Blessings: Marriage between Jews and Christians, a book about the challenges of interfaith families.^[1][2]

Cowan marriedRachel Ann Brown, a social worker, in 1965. She converted to Judaism in 1980, and later became a Reform rabbi.^[10] Together they had two children, Lisa and Matt. Cowan had three siblings:Geoffrey Cowan, an attorney and university professor, Holly Shulman, and Liza Cowan.^[1]

Cowan died ofleukemia on September 26, 1988.^[1]

• The Making of an Un-American: A Dialogue with Experience (1970)
• State Secrets: Police Surveillance in America (1974)
• The Tribes of America (1979)
• An Orphan in History: Retrieving a Jewish Legacy (1982)
• Mixed Blessings: Marriage between Jews and Christians (1987)

• 1940 births
• 1988 deaths
• American male journalists
• Jewish American journalists
• Harvard University alumni
• Journalists from New York City
• Spiegel family
• 20th-century American Jews
• Jews from New York (state)

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