Dov and Zehava (Rakover) Cohen

From The story of the Julius Cohen family of Seattle, Washington, prepared by Joseph Cohen.^[1]

Upon his graduation from grade school in Seattle in 1925, Dov was taken by his mother to Eretz Yisroel (then referred to as Palestine) and enrolled for one year in an orthodox high school in Tel Aviv. She remained with him there during that period, and following that, she took him to Hebron to study at the then newly established branch of the Slobodka, Lithuania Yeshiva. He narrowly escaped being slaughtered in the massacre of Friday, August 23, 1929 during which 59 Hebron Jews, including 24 of the 194 students of the yeshiva were brought to their end. More were wounded, some of whom died soon thereafter. Following the massacre, the Yeshiva was moved to Jerusalem, where Dov continued his rabbinical studies and received rabbinical ordination. He married Zehava Rakover who is a close relative of the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel and the principle ideologist of religious Zionism. A number of Zehava’s close relatives are very prominent in the rabbinical, academic, professional and governmental life of the country.

Shortly after Dov’s rabbinical ordination and marriage, the War of Independence broke out. He was appointed chief chaplain (rabbi) of the nascent Israeli Air Force, and the family moved to Jaffa where the headquarters were located. At the end of the war, he was appointed Director of Public Affairs in the Ministry of Religion of the national government, which position he occupied until his retirement in 1978.

Dov and Zehava’s children are all involved occupationally in religion-related activities. The daughters and the daughters-in-law are all teachers in religious schools.

Rachel, the oldest is married to Rabbi Yehuda Ades, founder and head of Kol Ya’acov Yeshiva, the leading Sephardic Yeshiva in Israel.^[2]

Miriam is married to Moishe Elshtein, a teacher of Jewish religious studies in a high school.

Simcha, whose wife’s name is Leah, is engaged in a diversity of adult educational activities sponsored by the El Hamekorot Society of B’nai Brak.

Zvi, who is married to Ayela, publishes profusely on halachic topics.

Yekutiel, married to Sarah, does research at the Harry Fischel and Chaim Herzog Institute of Talmudical Research in Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem.

Nahum, married to Yona, does advanced Talmudical study at the Ponevitz Yeshiva in B’nai Brak.

Avraham, married to Shoshana and Uziel, married to Hannah are engaged in advanced rabbinical studies in their father’s alma mater, the Hebron (Slobodka) Yeshiva which is now located in Jerusalem.

The foregoing families collectively are blessed with many children. Since a complete current list is unavailable in Seattle at the time of this writing, none at all will be provided, in order to avoid invidious comparisons. Suffice it to say that the commandment of “Be fruitful and multiply,” like other commandments, is not being flaunted.

Dov dedicated his first book, dealing with phases of the laws of kashrut, to his parents in words, which loosely translated, read:

To my mother and my teacher, the Tzadkonit Basha Reyzl, of blessed memory…who brought me when I was but a boy from a far distant place to the holy city of Hebron to live under the wing of Gaonim of world stature and to learn from them Torah, wisdom and mussar. And to my father and my teacher, of blessed memory…whose material support made it possible for me to devote myself to Torah during the formative years of my life.

I surmise with considerable confidence that my assertion is sound that Dov would be able, were it possible for him to be confronted with his great-grandfather Rabbi Yehudah Hacohen of eighteenth century Budvich, to carry on an extended and comprehensive discourse with him in their common language and with complete rapport. In his case the continuity of generations is almost completely unbroken.

Sources

1. ↑ Document in the possession of Harvey Levitt. Wiki'd with annotations by K. Bloom.
2. ↑ Yehuda Ades is a son of Rabbi Yaakov Ades.