MAY 4 • 2023 | 21

t’s been almost 22 years to the day 
since the Detroit Jewish News intro-
duced then Rebecca Perelman, a 
24-year-old medium, to the Metro 
Detroit Jewish community in a cover 
story titled “Spiritual Messenger.
” 
Since that time, Rebecca Rosen has gone on 
to build a worldwide reputation as a spiritual 
medium, speaker and author of four books. 
She’s been seen on national TV shows such 
as Extra, Nightline and The Rachel Ray Show. 
Rosen, who just released her fourth book, 
What’s Your Heaven?, will be coming “home” 
to the Berman Center at the JCC May 17 for 
one night only.
“I do consider Metro Detroit to be my sec-
ond home,
” said Rosen, who lives in Denver 
with her husband and children. “It was there 
that I discovered my gift. It was where I got 
the start to my career. My Michigan audi-
ence is the most loyal and has stood behind 
me all these years. Now, I’ll be getting to 
connect face-to-face with them again.
”
Rebecca was living in West Bloomfield 
with her father, who had moved to the area 
from Omaha, Nebraska, to start a mortgage 
business when she was 20. She was suffering 

from depression, when she tapped into her 
deceased grandmother’s energy. She had 
begun journaling, and her grandma came 
through to Rebecca and spoke to her about 
the depression and suicide that had claimed 
her own life.
By 2001, Rebecca was 24, doing readings 
out of a little coffee shop on Orchard Lake 
Road when she met Gail Zimmerman, an 

editor at the Jewish News.
“
A friend told me about her and said she 
would make a great story for the paper,
” 
said the now-retired Zimmerman. “I wasn’t 
convinced. I didn’t really believe all that stuff, 
but I arranged for me and a writer to meet 
her at the coffee shop, where she gave us 
each a reading.
”
During that reading, Zimmerman said 
Rebecca related very specific things about 
her aunts and uncles and relayed a comment 
from her late father about a conversation 
she and her husband had the night before. 
“It was very interesting, and I was intrigued 
that she came from a Jewish family — her 
mom worked at the Federation in Omaha, 
her brother was a rabbi — so I began doing 
some research.
”
Zimmerman found out that Rebecca 
wasn’t the only one talking about getting in 
touch with lost loved ones or spirit guides. 
Although more observant Jews frown on 
mediums and psychics as it is forbidden in 
the Torah, there were plenty of Jewish people 
who thought it could be helpful to tap into 
“the other side,
” including a rabbi who had 

TOP: Rebecca Rosen at a group reading. 
ABOVE: Her debut in the JN, April 27, 2001.

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