Shimon Dovid Cowen (born 7 September 1951)[1] is an Australian rabbi and academic. He is known for his research on, and advocacy for, the Noahide Laws, on the basis of which, he has publicly opposed homosexuality, looser abortion laws and voluntary assisted dying legislation.
He is affiliated with Chabad Hasidism, a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, and is the son of the former Governor General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen.
Cowen was born in Melbourne, Victoria, concluding his secondary education in New South Wales before attending the Australian National University in Canberra. His studies took him to the University of Munich and Monash University, from which he received a PhD in social philosophy in 1984.
For a number of years he was a member of the Kollel Menachem Lubavitch, a tertiary Rabbinic Institute, where he became director of community educational programs. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbis Chaim Gutnick and She’ar Yashuv Cohen He also taught in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization at Monash University.
In 1998 he founded, and continues to direct, the Institute for Judaism and Civilization.[2] This institute was established to examine the “interface between Judaism and the arts, sciences and values of general society”.
In addition to exploring the interface between Judaism and society and culture, Cowen has made a major focus of his work, the study of the universal ethics, at the root of the world religions, which he elaborated upon in his book on the Noahide laws, The Theory and Practice of Universal Ethics – The Noahide Laws. Cowen has opposed Victoria's abortion laws that he claims is too liberal, and claims that these policies will "open the floodgates of barbarism".[3] Victoria in 2017 introduced Australia’s first assisted suicide legislation, in which he saw further evidence of a loss of the moral compass of universal ethics and a new low point of civilization. He has also opposed homosexuality and euthanasia, as contraventions of the Noahide laws.
He claims that these ethics, at the root of the world religions, should inform all of humanity's action [4] and specifically be made known to political leaders and public political discourse.[5]
In the Victorian State election of 2014 he strongly advocated for a vote for one of the conservative minor parties, Family First, DLP or the Australian Christians. He opposed voting for the major parties based on their support for same sex marriage.[6]
He was also thanked by the DLP member of Victoria's Legislative Council, Rachel Carling-Jenkins during her maiden speech.[7]
Cowen is an open and vocal opponent of homosexuality, and more broadly campaigned against same sex marriage. The foundation premise of his book, Homosexuality, Marriage and Society, is that homosexuality has diverse causes (temperamental, psychological and cultural) extraneous to the essential person, the soul or conscience. He critiqued the move of the Victorian Government to appoint a Health Commissioner whose proposed job would, among other things, to ban conversion therapy. He called this ban an attack on patient autonomy, for those who wanted to enter such a program.[8] Even though almost all psychiatrists and psychiatric organisations oppose conversion therapy as dangerous and potentially harmful to the life of the individual,[9] [10] [11] Cowen has cited the report of the American Psychological Association on “Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation” (2009) that “There are no rigorously scientific sides of recent SOCE [Sexual Orientation change Efforts] that would enable us to make a definitive statement about whether recent SOCE is safe or harmful and for whom.” He also quotes a former President of the APA, Nicholas A. Cummings in 2013 testifying to significant successful outcomes of conversion therapy. Cowen does not have psychiatric qualifications.
In 2010, the Victorian government established the Safe Schools Coalition, which was to be adopted nationally with the goals to reduce bullying of among others, non-heterosexual children.[12] In 2012, Cowen opposed the program, stating it would "harm the normal sexual development of children".[13] The publication of his views on this question brought on moves to have him removed from his appointment at Monash University and resulted in a public statement of the University dissociating itself from Cowen's views.[14] [15]
In 2015, Cowen disseminated his opposition to same-sex marriage via his Monash University email account. The University subsequently revoked Cowen's appointment, citing inappropriate of university email. On the grounds that the University’s decision constituted a prima facie violation of the Act of Parliament establishing Monash University, Cowen pursued and then appealed a Freedom of Information decision about disclosure of the deliberations of the University leading to the dismissal. The presiding Magistrate found that "While I accept Dr Cowen's submission that freedom of academic expression and freedom to hold and practice religious beliefs in a university setting are important public interests, I reject his submission that the public interest requires that access should be given to the documents in contest in this proceeding."[16]
In 2017, at an event organised by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria titled the 'LGBTI Mental Health Forum', Cowen compared same sex attraction to bestiality and paedophilia, incest and theft.[17] Cowen claimed that he was "misunderstood" and apologised for the hurt his comments caused.[18] [19]