(JTA) — A Jewish couple in Pittsburgh named their baby girl after Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was killed in the attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue.
Judah and Chaya Cowen welcomed Noa Lea — Gilbert-Kaye’s Hebrew name was Leah — on May 3. She is the couple’s fifth child.
“Before I knew her name, I thought that if we have a girl, it would be an honor to name her after Lori,” Judah Cowen told Chabad.org News. “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 her, a true hero.”
The Cowens live a few miles from the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh where exactly six months before the attack on the Poway synagogue, a gunman killed 11 worshippers at Shabbat services.
“We basically know what that community is going through because we just went through it ourselves,” Judah Cowen said of Poway.
