Martin Samuel Cohen is rabbi of the Shelter Rock Jewish Center in

Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,988 at the time of the 2020 census. ...

Biography

Cohen was educated at the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

and at

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

, where he was ordained a rabbi and received his Ph.D. in ancient Judaism. His dissertation dealt with the early Jewish mystical work Shiur Komah. At that time he also studied the legal writings of

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

together with his friend Rabbi Dr. Zvi Leshem, currently the director of the

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...

Collection at the

National Library of Israel The National Library of Israel (NLI; ; ), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; ), is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Judaism, Jewish Cultural heritage, heritage. The library holds more ...

. He has taught at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, at the

, at the Institute for Jewish Studies of the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

, and at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and

Vancouver School of Theology The Vancouver School of Theology is a Christian ecumenical divinity school located on the campus of and affiliated with the University of British Columbia. Faculty * Mari Joerstad, Dean, Professor of Hebrew Bible * Joni Sancken, Professor of H ...

. Cohen also served as rabbi at 1986–1999 at Beth Tikvah Congregation in

Richmond, British Columbia Richmond is a city in the coastal Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly a suburban city, it occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough, New Westminster, Queensborough), between the two estuarine dis ...

and from 1999 to 2002 at Congregation Eilat in

Mission Viejo Mission Viejo ( ; language change, corruption of ; ) is a Commuter town, commuter city in the Saddleback Valley in Orange County, California, United States. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest Planned community, master-planned commu ...

, California. In 2002, he became rabbi of the Shelter Rock Jewish Center in

. Cohen is the author of academic articles, novels, and books of essays. His publications include ''Our Haven and Our Strength: The Book of Psalms'' (Aviv Press, 2003) and ''The Boy on the Door on the Ox: An Unusual Spiritual Journey Through the Strangest Jewish Texts'' (Aviv Press). Rabbi Cohen published a Siddur in 2007 called ''Siddur Tzur Yisrael''. From 1997 to 2000, Cohen was chairman of the Publications Committee of the

Rabbinical Assembly The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, an ...

, and he then became chair of the editorial board of the quarterly journal ''

Conservative Judaism Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movements, Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations ...

''. In April 2012, the

published a new guide to Jewish law and practice, ''The Observant Life: The Wisdom of Conservative Judaism for Contemporary Jews'', edited by Rabbi Cohen and Rabbi Michael Katz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Martin Samuel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American rabbis 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American rabbis Academic staff of Heidelberg University American Conservative rabbis American Jewish theologians American male non-fiction writers Hunter College faculty Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish Theological Seminary of America semikhah recipients People from Roslyn, New York