Norma Cohen, advocate for social justice, dies at 87

Norma Cohen, referred to by colleagues as "a dynamo" and "a force of nature," had a passion for peace, interfaith understanding and social justice.

A former social worker with what was the Family Service Association of Nassau County, she retired at age 75 and went on to lobby Albany for tougher gun-control laws and march in Washington, D.C. against the war in Iraq.

Asked about the notion of relaxing, she told Newsday in 2003, "I can't . . . I would get ulcers if I didn't do something [for others]. I can't stand injustice."

Cohen, 87, of Flower Hill, died Friday of esophageal cancer at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, with family members by her side.

She was no "armchair visionary. She had little patience for just talking," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance, a nonpartisan group looking to unite diverse voices. A longtime board member, Cohen was also founder and past president of the organization's Long Island chapter. She was also active on the social justice committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset.

Cohen often came face-to-face with beneficiaries of her good deeds, said Harvey Cohen, 91, her husband of 62 years, who told of the many strangers who would come up to thank her. Less than a month ago, he said, a nurse asked, "Were you the Norma Cohen who worked at family services? You really helped my family."

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, the daughter of a Suffragette and a U.S. Marine who served in World War I, she got an undergraduate degree at Ohio University and a master's in social work from Smith College. During World War II, she worked in Appalachia for the Red Cross.

Among her other accomplishments: helping coordinate a "Stop the Hate" vigil in the wake of the 2000 assault of two Mexican day laborers from Farmingville, and leading a drive with her husband to establish Hadley House, a senior housing residence in Port Washington.

"She did all this and was also an unbelievable mother, an unbelievable wife and an unbelievable grandmother . . . She's like Christmas every day," said her daughter, Beth Cole, director of intergovernmental affairs at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. Asked about her mother's influence on her career, she said, "When you grow up with that, you just know you have to go out and do good."

Habeeb Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, said, "She was the life of the Interfaith Alliance." As for her passing, he said, "God also needs some good people up there, so he takes some of these people from us."

Besides her husband and daughter, Cohen is survived by sons Douglas, of Washington, D.C., and Barry, of East Setauket; sister Betty Thompson, of Roslyn, and six grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for March 6 at 3 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, 48 Shelter Rock Rd., Manhasset. Donations can be made to the Interfaith Alliance at interfaithalliance.org.