Like many other parents and parents-to-be, Judah and Chaya Cowen had a list of names prepared for when their little bundle of joy arrived. They took a detour, however, when they chose to name their fifth child, a baby girl born on May 3, Noa Lea.
She’s named after Lori Gilbert-Kaye, whose Hebrew name was Leah, and who was murdered on the last day of Passover by a lone gunman who entered Chabad of Poway, Calif., on April 27 and targeted its congregants.
“Before I knew her name, I thought that if we have a girl, it would be an honor to name her after Lori,” said Judah Cowen. “Everything I was reading about her—her dedication to her community and various organizations, her loyalty to friends and caring for other people, and her love for Israel—it just seemed like she was an extraordinary lady, just an amazing, tremendous human being. ... I felt connected to her, even though I never met her or heard of her before. It just felt right that we name our daughter after a true hero.”
In her Facebook post announcing the birth of Noa Lea, Chaya Cowen wrote: “Happy to announce the birth of our little girl Noa Lea, named for the beautiful victim of last week’s shooting Lori Kaye, Leah bat Reuven, whom Judah and I did not know personally but after reading so much about her feel privileged for our daughter to carry her name!”
The Cowens live in Pittsburgh, a few miles from the Tree of Life synagogue, where a gunman killed 11 people during Shabbat services just six months ago. Hearing about the shooting at Chabad of Poway brought some of those emotions back. In fact, Judah Cowen was in his local shul at a program with his children—Noa Lea has four older siblings—when he heard about the attack in California.
“We basically know what that community is going through because we just went through it ourselves,” he said.
Though they have not talked to anyone in Lori’s family directly, the Cowens know that the family has heard about the baby, as Chaya Cowen has relatives in Los Angeles who know Lori’s sister, Randy Grossman.
Naming the baby Lea, said Judah Cowen, “seemed like the right thing to do.”
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