Alexander Cowen

Elchanan (Alexander) HaCohen Cowen was an associate of Rebbe Rayatz and the Rebbe and a board member of Agudas Chasidei Chabad.

His Connections with Chabad

He became close to Chabad through Yisrael Jacobson in 1938, and from then on corresponded frequently with the Rebbe Rayatz. He had many private audiences with the Rayatz Rebbe along with his colleague, the philanthropist Julius Stulman. Many times after these private audiences, they would continue to speak for hours with the Rebbe (then known as the Ramash). In 1943, he estabished, upon the request of the Rebbe Rayatz, a study group for non-religious Jews lecturing from the book The Bible Unauthorized written by Aaron Levitt. Regarding the success of the study group, the Rayatz Rebbe writes: In the first year, they would meet from time to time, and in the second year, they arranged to study once a week, and over time the number of participants increased. The effects of the study were visible among the attendess, who began to refrain from eating non-kosher food, and today, thank God, there are several minyanim - mostly English speakers - who previously knew nothing about Jewish religion, among them some who now put on tefillin, observe Shabbat, etc.. In 1944, he compiled a collection on the laws and importance of tefillin that was published by Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.