Emil Bernhard Cohn

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Emil Bernhard Cohn ( Hebrew אמיל ברנהרד כהן, Too) Emil Moses Cohn and Ben Oni Oni (born 18th February 1881 in Steglitz ; died 28 February 1948 in Los Angeles ) was a German rabbi , Zionist , writer and playwright , who in the 1939 United States States emigrated . He wrote numerous plays, novels, books and articles about Judaism and used as a writer pseudonym his name Emil Bernhard .

Life

Emil Bernhard Cohn was born as one of seven children of the physician Bernhard Cohn , Zionist and chairman of the Steglitz Synagogue Association in Düppelstrasse , and Caecilie Cohn (1854–1935), née Sabersky. The entire family was one of Theodor Herzl's supporters . His eldest sister Hinde Helene Cohn (1882–1966) founded the Jewish Women's Association for Gymnastics and Sport (Ifftus) with like-minded people in 1910 ; his youngest sister was the architect Lotte Cohn .

Years in Germany

Emil Cohn studied from 1899 at the University of Berlin and at the University for the Science of Judaism and received his doctorate in March 1903 at the University of Heidelberg . As a student he became a member of the Association of Jewish Students and in 1901 was a co-founder of the Zionist student association, the National Jewish Association of Listeners at the Institute for the Science of Judaism , which dissolved in 1902 under threat of relegation .

In 1904 he passed his rabbinical exam with Judah Leon Magnes and others and in 1905 was employed as a religion teacher at the Berlin Falk Realgymnasium in Berlin-Tiergarten . In 1906 he became a preacher and religious teacher for the Jewish community in Berlin , but had to give up his office again in 1907 because of his Zionist stance under pressure from the community council.

From 1907 to 1908 he studied law at the University of Kiel and then worked as a rabbi in Kiel until 1912 . As a delegate, he took part in the ninth Zionist congress in Hamburg in December 1909 . In 1912 he became a rabbi in Essen , in 1914 a member of the Misrachi and then worked as a rabbi in Bonn from 1914 to 1925 .

In Essen, Cohn also taught medieval history at the Johanneum and was a lecturer in Hebrew at the University of Bonn . From 1919 to 1921 he also worked on the bi-monthly magazine Blätter für Bühnenkunst , published by the Städtische Bühne Bonn , of which Paul Hankamer was editor-in-chief at the time . From 1920 he became increasingly known as a playwright. His plays have been staged by the Habimah Theater , among others . He was a member of the Rhineland Lodge of the B'nai B'rith , based in Cologne, and later a member of the Berlin Jehuda-Halevi-Lodge - a biographical treatise he wrote on the philosopher and poet Jehuda ha-Levi was published by Erich Reiss in 1921 . He was married to Margarete, called "Grete", née Kaufmann (1893–1965), with whom he had a son named Bernhard (1923–1992; later also a rabbi) and two daughters.

Jewish youth calendar from the community's Jewish library , formerly stolen from the Nazi regime

In 1925 he returned to Berlin, where he was rabbi in the Grunewald synagogue until 1936 and also head of the Free Jewish Elementary School in Berlin in 1933 . As early as 1928 he founded the Jewish children's calendar , which he published until 1931, as well as the Jewish youth calendar , which he published until his escape in the community, because at the time of National Socialism it was first published by the National Socialists in 1933 , 1935/36 Arrested the second time and after a brief release in 1936 for the third time. In October 1936 he used the outdoor area to celebrate his son's Bar Mitzvah to flee to the Netherlands , where he also acted as a liaison between the local and German Jewish communities.

From the Netherlands, he and his family traveled to the United States with a visitor visa in February 1939 for a lecture series.

Years in the United States

In the United States he found the support of Albert Einstein and Stephen Wise , who made him deputy rabbi of his Free Synagogue in New York .

In 1941 he moved with his family to the state of California , where he lived until the end of his life. There he was rabbi in the Orthodox congregation "Beth Jacob" in Menlo Park and as a lecturer in Hebrew literature at Stanford University in Palo Alto . In 1945 he became rabbi of the "Temple Sinai" in Glendale and lectured on Jewish history at the School of Jewish Studies.

From 1947 to 1948, Cohn was the librarian of the Los Angeles Jewish Community Council founded in 1934 , which merged with the Jewish Welfare Federation founded in 1911 in 1959 .

Emil Bernhard Cohn died in an accident on the way to work when he was hit by a car while crossing the street.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ see also Jewish name

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ines Sonder: Building for a new country. The architect Lotte Cohn between Berlin and Erez Israel. In: Elke-Vera Kotowski (Ed.): Salondamen und Frauenzimmer. Self-emancipation of German-Jewish women in two centuries. Walter de Gruyter, 2016, p. 111 ff. ISBN 3-110-27663-1
  2. ↑ a b s: The Schaubühne - The world stage / authors
  3. ^ Sheets for stage art. In: Thomas Dietzel, Hans-Otto Hügel German literary magazines 1880–1945. A repertory. Walter de Gruyter, new edition. 2012, p. 157. ISBN 3-110-97671-4 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  4. ^ Emil Berhard: Jehuda Halevi. A divan. Emil Reiss, Berlin 1921.
  5. ^ Los Angeles Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Council Merge. Jewish Telegraphic Agency , April 8, 1959.
personal data
SURNAME Cohn, Emil Bernhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohn, Emil Moses; Oni, Ben Oni (Jewish name); Bernhard, Emil (pseudonym); כהן, אמיל ברנהר (Hebrew)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi, Zionist, writer and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Steglitz
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1948
Place of death los Angeles