Bernhard N. Cohn

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Bernhard Nathan Cohn (born September 17, 1923 in Bonn ; died April 7, 1992 in New York City , United States ) was an American rabbi and author from Germany .

Life

Bernhard N. Cohn was the son of the Zionist rabbi Emil Bernhard Cohn and his wife Margarete, called "Grete", née Kaufmann (1893-1965). He had two older sisters. During the time of National Socialism , the father was arrested three times and in October 1936 used his time off for Bernhard's Bar Mitzvah celebration to emigrate with his wife to the United States via the Netherlands in 1939. In 1942 he received US citizenship.

Bernhard Cohn attended school in Germany from 1929, briefly in the Netherlands and from 1933 to 1936 in the Caputh Jewish children's and rural school home near Potsdam . With a grant from Woburn House he was able to attend a private school in Brighton, England , from 1937 to 1940 , and a non-quota visa brought him to the United States, where he attended a high school until 1941. After the family reunification in 1941, she went to California . In 1941 Bernhard Cohn began his BA studies at the University of California, Berkeley . He interrupted his studies during his military service in the US armed forces in World War II from 1943 to 1946, where he was deployed as a soldier in the Pacific War and was involved in the occupation of Japan. He then completed his BA at the University of California in 1948. On October 22, 1950, he married Miriam Hahn, born in Essen in 1927 , daughter of the social worker and rabbi Hugo Hahn (1893-1967), who also emigrated to the United States , with whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1953 he finished his Hebrew Letters - Master's degree at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and received the Semicha .

First he was from 1953 to 1957 rabbi of the reform community Temple Emanu El in Utica , New York State . After he then 1957-1962 Rabbi of Suburban Temple ( Temple B'nai Torah ) in Wantagh also in the state of New York, was, he was in 1962 Rabbi of Congregation Habonim , exactly one year after the Kristallnacht in a rented synagogue in 55th street in New York was co-founded by his father-in-law. There he advocated the Americanization of the congregation and a greater use of the English language in church services. Among other things, from 1970 Cohn was temporarily chairman of the Association of Reform Rabbis of New York and Vicinity .

Works (selection)

Fonts:

  • Early German preaching in America. In: Historia Judaica , No. 15, Part 2, October 1953, pp. 86-134.
  • David Unicorn . Some aspects of his thinking. In: Essays in American Jewish History , Cincinnati American Jewish Archives, 1958, pp. 315-324.
  • Eulogy in memory of President John F. Kennedy . Habonim Congregation, New York City, 1963.
  • A brief history of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati 1975.

Radio plays:

  • Cohn (screenplay); William Steinel (Ill.); Samuel Grand (Prod.): Teacher's guide to David Einhorn, the father of the Union prayer book. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York City 1960.
  • Cohn (screenplay); Mel Alpern (ore); Herb Duncan (Ore.); Samuel Grand (Prod.): Martin Buber . The life in dialogue. LP audio book; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York City 1966.

Films:

  • Cohn (screenplay); Mel Alpern (ore); Herb Duncan (Ore.); Samuel Grand (Prod.): Martin Buber . The life in dialogue. Film series; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York City 1966.
  • Cohn (screenplay); William Steinel (Ill.); Samuel Grand (Prod.): Modern Jewish history. 3-part film strip, 1969.

as editor:

  • Living legacy. Essays in honor of Hugo Hahn. Habonim Congregation, New York, 1963.

literature

  • Cohn, Bernhard N. In: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Red.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economics, public life. Saur, Munich, 1980, p. 113. ISBN 0-89664-101-5 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  • Cohn, Bernhard Nathan. In: Who's Who in Religion. Marquis Who's Who, 1977, p. 125. ( limited preview in Google book search)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Kraft: Ashkenaz in Jerusalem. The Religious Institutions of Immigrants from Germany in the Jerusalem District of Rechavia (1933–2004) - Transfer and Transformation. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014, p. 291. ISBN 3-525-57034-1 .
  2. ↑ About Us. Nursery School of Habonim, Congregation Habonim.
personal data
SURNAME Cohn, Bernhard N.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohn, Bernhard Nathan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American rabbi and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1992
Place of death New York City , United States