Helene Rabinovitz, therapist, tennis player, Broadway aficionado, and longtime Provincetown summer resident, died of ovarian cancer at her home in New York City on May 27, 2025. She was 83. In her final days, she received calls and visits from friends.

“We held her hand, told stories, and even danced,” said her friend Mara Winokur. “Some of us even paraded around in her wig.”

Mara added that Helene, whom she called her aunt though they were not related, also made sure to eat plenty of her favorite foods — oysters, escargot, and ice cream — before she died. “Like everything she did,” said Mara, “she gave it her all.”

Helene was born in Boston on June 13, 1941 to Beatrice Soraka, a homemaker, and Abraham Rabinovitz, who owned a pharmacy where teenage Helene worked the soda fountain. She had a sister, Gladys. Though she was “not a good student” at Girls’ Latin Academy (now Boston Latin), Mara said, Helene attended Boston University and then New York University, where she earned a master’s degree in psychology, followed by Columbia University for a master’s degree in social work.

After a few years working at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx and a program for troubled girls in Worcester, Helene established a thriving private practice on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She taught summer classes and supervised theses at the Smith College School of Social Work, living on campus with her Himalayan cat, Prudence. There, in 2007, she won the school’s Day-Garrett Award, honoring a lifetime of achievement in social work.

When her friend Carol Conaway — whom she’d met at Boston University — purchased a home in Provincetown with wife Cicely Stetson in 1998, Helene began spending more time in town, eventually purchasing her own house on Bangs Street.

She came to town every summer, was a regular at the Mews, and hosted cocktail parties (she reportedly made a mean martini). “She loved lobster, the tops of muffins, and anything Cicely cooked,” said Carol. She popped into Angel Foods daily to buy the New York Times.

“She was a lovely lady,” said store owner Liz Lovati, “and she fought till the end.” She added that Helene was “ahead of her time” as a highly educated professional during a period when that was not common for women. Helene, she said, exuded a commendable strength. “I always admired that she was OK being alone,” said Liz.

Helene may have made her most indelible mark here at the Provincetown Tennis Club, which Mara said was “truly her happy place.” For over 30 years, according to her friend Susan Curtis, she played doubles every Saturday morning at the club, where she was known for her “ferociously fast forehand” and for always playing the deuce court “to get the most opportunities to hit that signature shot.”

A tennis club highlight, said Mara, was meeting Billie Jean King, who, upon learning that Helene was a therapist, told her, “Therapists saved my life.”

Judy Gold played with and against Helene many times. “She was really smart, had a great sense of humor, and was an incredible tennis player,” said Judy. “She had a slice! She could play with anyone. She always wore a skirt and was effortless on the court.”

There is a bench in Helene’s honor on Court 2 with the quote, “I’d rather be playing tennis.” Mara had it installed just before Helene died so she could see it.

Helene loved watching pro tennis — traveling the circuit from the U.S. Open and Indian Wells to the French Open, Italian Open, Wimbledon, and Madrid Open — and traveling in general, including numerous bicycling and art-making trips through Europe when she was in her 70s.

She was a voracious theatergoer, supporting Broadway shows as both audience member and investor, and donated to dozens of charities and nonprofits.

Most important, “She was a loyal and wonderful friend,” said Carol. “She was a great listener and a great punster.” On her fridge, the shopping list was titled “Chopin Liszt.”

Mara agreed that what was most special about Helene was how she “made her own family.” “She found people she cared about,” said Mara, “whether her tennis-player friends, her drinking-at-the-bar friends, or her adopted family like me and my family. She gave us all her all.”

Helene is survived by her chosen nieces, Mara Winokur and her sister, Rachel Winokur, and her many friends. She was predeceased by her sister, Gladys.