Esther Lowy, Dean of Touro College L.A., 66

Esther Lowy, founding dean of Touro College Los Angeles, died Dec. 19 at the age of 66, of cancer, according to her husband, Rudolph. 

Touro College is based in New York and caters to Orthodox individuals who might otherwise be uncomfortable with the secular aspects of college life while also providing nonobservant individuals the opportunity to study Torah. 

Lowy previously talked to the Journal about how important it was to create higher education opportunities for observant Jews in the region. Touro Los Angeles opened in 2005 and now has approximately 100 students. 

“The vision was, we would need to service the Jewish community of Los Angeles in the Los Angeles community itself — rather than to say, ‘Everyone had to come to New York to get that kind of education.’ … Esther took that vision and made it a reality,” Stanley Boylan, vice president of undergraduate education and dean of faculties at Touro College, told the Journal. “From the very outset, when it was a gleam in [Touro founder] Dr. [Bernard] Lander’s eye, she took the ball and ran with it. She made this into a vital program.”

Lowy, who was Orthodox, was born in New York and received a doctorate from New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. She began her academic career at City University of New York, where she specialized in group theory. 

She married her husband, Rudolph, in 1974, and shortly thereafter, the two relocated to Los Angeles. She taught at Cal Poly Pomona and as part of the math faculty at UCLA, where she earned a master’s of business administration, before joining Touro. Lowy also “served on the educational boards of many of the local yeshivas and schools,” according to a statement from her family.

During the 1990s, Lowy and her family spent four years living in Israel. Her love of the Holy Land was honored even after her passing: She was buried last month at Eretz HaChaim Cemetery in Beit Shemesh.  

A remembrance ceremony at Los Angeles International Airport’s El Al terminal took place last month. Boylan estimated that hundreds of people, including Touro alumni, attended.

A sheloshim ceremony, marking 30 days since the death of the deceased, will take place Jan. 18 at Touro College Los Angeles, 1317 N. Crescent Heights Blvd., West Hollywood.

Lowy is survived by her husband; children Elie (Chava) Lowy, Ephraim (Devorah) Lowy, Mindi Weinberg (Jay), Tova Pfeffer (Alex), Devorah Pelman (Chananiah), Naphtali (Racheli) Lowy, Shuli Lowy and Chaim Lowy; brother, Avrohom Freilich; and 17 grandchildren.