3rd of Shvat–yahrzeit of great-grandfather Rav Yona Cohn

 This coming Wednesday is the 89th yahrzeit of great-grandfather Rav Yona Cohn.

Rav Yona was born in Altona to Chacham Binyamin and his wife Miriam (Marianne), a talmid of the RabbinerSeminar in Berlin he wrote a dissertation on the לחם הפנים. Later he translated and wrote a German commentary on סדר קדשים. From both of these I assume that as a Cohen he felt especially responsible for learning הלכות that were relevant for כהנים. His brother Dayan Yaakov Cohn הי״ד זצ״ל, reported that a great influence on them was that as children they learned with their uncle Rav Yekev Cohn who was a talmid of Chasam Sofer and with Rav Munk who was a talmid of Rav Akiva Eiger. So they were really connected to the tradition of an earlier generation of גדולי התורה.

My mother recalled visiting when he was already elderly and frail and going with him to shul on Shabbos and being struck by how dertmined he was to walk the long way around and not to go on a shopping street, where many of the stores were owned by Jews and open on Shabbos. My friend and neighbor Reb Eli Kon who died a few months ago, was born and raised in Wroclaw (Breslau) in the Gerer shtiebel which is still standing–he told me that many of the Polish Jews who came from frum homes gave up on Shabbos when they had stores in Breslau.

Great-grandfather was originally rov in Wreschen, now Września in Poland, then it was close to the border with Russia/Poland and was a fairly large Jewish community (https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15029-wreschen) The Malbim was the Rov there earlier and wrote his ארצות החיים while he was there. My grandmother Leah was born during the period in Wreschen.

Later he became the Rov in Rawicz (Rawitsch) and he wrote and published a history of the community which had been there since the early 1600s. Rabbi Avrohom Eiger, eldest son of Rav Akiva Eger who prepared his writings for publication, lived in Ravicz. Rav Yona would probably have stayed there, but after WW1 it became part of Poland, and Poland did not pay rabbonim official government salaries and also required learning the language. So he moved to became Dayan in Wroclaw/Breslau around 1920. As you can see from the illustrations below, he had official hours to receive the שאלות of the city, and was also responsible for supervising kashrus.

זכותו יגן בעד צאצאיו זכרונו לחיי עולם הבא

Hesped with a Dvar Torah

 Now I can see the complete article about Rabbi Dr. Cohn. Here's the full translation:

Kleines Feuilleton

In Memory of Rabbi Dr. Cohn in Breslau.

The highest honor one can give to the dead consists in letting the lips of those at rest speak. So in honor of the recently deceased Rabbi Dr. John Cohn in Breslau, who is known through his valuable work on the German translation and commentary of the Mishnah (Parts V and VI, Berlin and Wiesbaden), I wish to recall in grateful remembrance a forty-year true friendship and connection to share with my family an interpretation of a Mishnah passage that he gave me during our last meeting. His explanation, as he told me, is new and might, I believe, be of interest due to its general content.

Since this information is already a year and a half old, and its reproduction comes through someone whose life's work is not in the rabbinical field, the responsibility for its wording falls to the writer of these lines. In the final Mishnah in Peah it says: "Whoever actually would have needed to take (charity) and does not take it, will not die of old age without having supported others with what is his. For it is written: Blessed is the man who trusts in God, and God will be his support [Jeremiah 17:7]. Likewise it is with the judge who judges with truth."

One asks: How does the judge fit into this Mishnah passage? The answer is: The person in poor circumstances who renounces gifts may only do this based on certain prerequisites: He must first correctly assess the situation and the circumstances surrounding him, secondly he must have confidence in his own strength and personality, and thirdly he must rely on the blessing of the Most High. That he has acted reasonably will later be confirmed by the help of the Almighty. The righteous judge also needs three conditions for his judgment: meaningful examination of the facts, belief in his own judgment capability, and finally trust that he will be guided correctly by the Most High in his decision. A judgment rendered on this basis provides the judge with a good conscience as reward, and he is called a companion of God. This is the connection between the judge and the distressed person who rightly believes he must not accept human help. The Mishnah further compares a judge who takes bribes with one who deceives others by pretending to have a disability in order to partake of their charity.

A. L.

This article is from "Der Israelit" (The Israelite), as indicated in the header of the page. You can see "Der Israelit" printed at the top of the newspaper page, along with "Nr. 7 Seite 5" (No. 7 Page 5) and the date February 15, 1934 ("15. Februar 1934").

"Der Israelit" was a German-Jewish newspaper that served the Orthodox Jewish community in Germany during this period. It reported on matters relevant to observant Jews and, as we can see from this memorial piece, included remembrances of important religious figures like Rabbi Dr. John Cohn.

לתולדות הרב יונה כהן

 See email with this subject - it's a copy from the Rawitch book

Recha Fink article

 From a manuscript found among the papers of Mrs. Recha Fink, née Cohn, see A.

"My mother, Jenny Goldstein, was the oldest Daughter of Johanna and Sigmund Goldstein At the age of 18 she married mine Father, Rabbi Dr. John Cohn. Your bridal picture hangs in my room, she was a beauty, large, bright eyes, a delicate figurine In the dressy costume of yesteryear with the tight waist and a long, thick braid to far above the hips.

My father's father was a Moroccan Jew. On the journey from Morocco to Spain his ship sank, he swam on a beam in  the sea and was rescued from the sea by an English steamer and came via England, Holland to Altona as Dayan at the local Sephardic community, married an Altonärin, Marianne Stern.

My father was the eldest of 9 siblings, attended school and high school in Al­tona and then studied in Berlin at the rabbinical seminary and the university. After completing his studies, his ­father died and he took up his post for a short time until the ­younger brother Jakob received his rabbinical qualification and was able to take over the post. My father then received a call to Wreschen, Prov. Posen, and there my mother married.  They were certainly very happy days there  in Wreschen, where they found a number of young couples ­in the community, young lawyers, merchants, ­etc., with whom they had been friends throughout their lives. There her­4 children were born. The eldest Ella, then a son, Benno, another daughter, Recha (that's me) and another son, Walter. I have no memory of Wreschen, because I was barely 3 years old when my father took office in Rawitsch.

Rawitsch was a much larger, thriving community. We first lived in the community center, which stood next to the beautiful, new synagogue.  In Rawitsch 3 more children were born: Cilly, Ilse and Erna. When  my youngest sister Erna was born, my mother died. I was 11 years old at the time, but I remember exactly how much our lives were changed by this event. My father  was by no means an unworldly scholar, he was a great talmudist, but he was a lovable,­skillful companion. He arranged ­our dilettant performances in the Lite­raturverein, wrote the occasional poems  and texts to the  couplets and liked to play a skat in the circle of friends. But the death  of his dearly beloved wife was such a heavy blow for him that he lost much of his zest for life and joie de vivre.

After a year he married an older girl, Rosa Itzkowski, her father had  a printing press in Berlin and she had worked in the company, had a good Jewish knowledge and - was a good-hearted wife and us a good stepmother.

We lived in a beautiful house on the promenade, the house stood on the road, was completely overgrown with wine and from both sides  and behind stretched a large garden with fruit trees, lilac bushes and a tent­square. What happy youth days  we spent there, our housewas the meeting point of our friends, we also had some pensioners, boys from the area, who attended high school in Rawitsch.

My father had his study after the street with a terrace that led into the garden . His study was up to the ceiling.

He sat at his desk studying the Talmud, but mostly he walked around his room and took notes on his sermons­or his books at his standing desk. The room was covered in cigar smoke, because my father's cigar never ran out. This study had a  great charm for everyone, I remember a young, elegant woman who had only been married in Rawitsch for a short time, she came to us with her husband in the evening  for a tea visit, my father came to us for a cozy chat. Before the guests left, the young woman was ­allowed to enter my father's study room just  to be able to take the south of that room home with her­.

We had good schools in Rawitsch. After finishing high school,  my sister Ella went to the teacher training college in Breslau and then worked as a teacher in Berlin and Frankfurt. In 1912 she married Dr. A. Blau from Hamburg. They had 3 children. The eldest lives in New York, is a Talmud teacher, ­married, has 3 children. The daughter lives in London, is married to Emil Marmorstein, has 6 children. The youngest died in Holland in the Hit_erzeit.

My brother Benno passed his Abitur in Ra-witsch, studied economics in Berlin, then worked in business in Breslau and I'amburg, most recently as an employee of the Upper­Silesian wood industry in Cadca. After the occupation ofCzechoslovakia,  it was transported first to Berlin and then to the East­.

I married in 1919, the merchant­Ernst Fink from Hamburg. We emigrated to Israel in 1933 with 6 children. My husband died here in 1948, and we  lost our youngest child to polio in our first year here. The other 5 children all live here in hrael and are married.

Walter was a volunteer in the First World War­, was seriously wounded and one leg was  amputated. Worked in the brass factory and in Berlin as  a merchant, married Edith Schwersenski, a childhood friend from Same near Rawitsch, had a­son, lived last in Teschan, was deported by the Nazis.

Ciliy married Paul Pinkus, metal merchant in Berlin, had 2 children, Heinz and Ilse. Heinz  married in Cardiff, 2 children, Ilse married in Israel, 2 children­. Cilly was divorced and, like him, married to Joachim Koppel, who died in 1949. Lives a:s widow in London.

Erna was a senior teacher in Liegnitz, after 1933 in Leipzig at the Carlebach School. In 1935 he married Rabbi William Schlesinger from St. Gallen and went with him to Buenos Aires to join the­Jewish community. She has one daughter. Erna died in 1958.

After the First World War, Rawitsch became Polish; the community dissolved, many Jews moved to Breslau, and thanks to their influence, my father was given a post as Dayan in Breslau  . He also had a large number of friends in Breslau. He died  in 1934 in Breslau, his wife Rosa followed him Cri year :perpetrator to death."

November 1975.