Valerie Harper, actress who played Jewish roles, diagnosed with terminal cancer

Valerie Harper, 73, the actress who famously played transplanted secular Jewish New Yorker Rhoda Morganstern on TV’s “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later on her own spinoff (“Rhoda”) revealed to the Today Show this morning and in an interview released in People Magazine that she has been diagnosed with a rare form of inoperable brain cancer. The actress said her disease is terminal.

Harper, who beat lung cancer in 2009, is now fighting leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a cancer that attacks the coating and the fluid canals of the brain. According to Harper, who also portrayed Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier in a national tour of William Gibson’s one-woman play “Golda’s Balcony” in 2005-2006, she has three months or less to live.

Doctors believe the previous lung cancer may be connected to her new diagnosis. Although she is electing to take chemotherapy pumped directly into her brain, doctors point out that because of the fluid aspects of this cancer, the prognosis for recovery and remission are not as good as they would be were it a solid tumor. The treatment is not considered curative, but it may extend her life for some time.

Raised Catholic, Harper eventually quit the Church, but her endearing performance on TV as the wise-cracking Morganstern was one of the first Jewish characters to manifest a huge following. During the run of the show and for several decades after the shows had gone into syndication, many people expressed surprise in learning she was not Jewish. She was quoted as saying her response to those who inquired was: “I am Jewish – in my heart.”