Samuel and Esther (Bennett) Cohen of Seattle

Date: About 1903 to 1982
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Cohen Bennett

Samuel and Esther (Bennett) Cohen of Seattle

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

Sam was six years old in 1903 when Basha Reyzl and the children left the old country to join Julius in America. The most vivid of his lingering recollections of Budvich is of stopping by at his grandparents’ home on the way back from Shul each Saturday morning and being given a portion of lockshen kugel as a special treat.^[2] In South Bend his playmates were his Cohen and Stein cousins. Through later years, he did some visiting in South Bend, maintained intermittent correspondence with Gertrude (Mrs. I.M.) Cohen of Chicago, the clearing house of the Abraham Cohen branch, and visited Jules Stein during almost each of his many trips to Southern California during recent years, until Jules died last year.

Sam was twelve years old when the whole family became settled in Seattle in 1909. During the first year in Seattle he attended talmud torah after school. After that first year, he worked in whatever business establishment his father was involved, and Basha Reyzl arranged for him to receive Hebrew lessons at home during the week-ends. The United States entered World War I when he was completing his second year of studies in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in the field of civil engineering. He enlisted in the Artillery Corps and served for more than a year in France. On returning to Seattle, he went to work in his father’s business, in which he subsequently became a partner. During World War II he established his own retail military officers’ uniform business. After the war, he shifted to residential real estate sales, and is now semi-retired.

Through most of his adult life he was very much involved in local Jewish community affairs. Like his father before him, he follows current affairs very closely and writes frequent letters to the editor most of which get published in the local press. He expresses himself very succinctly and forcefully, principally concerning issues relating to Israel and to the excessive costs of military expenditures.

Sam married Esther Bennett of Montreal in 1933. Two children were born to them.^[3] The older is Laine (now Mrs. Ronald Harris) whose husband is in the commercial real estate business in San Francisco. Laine’s three children are Linda Ann, Daniel and Jonathan. Sam’s younger child is Norman who practices law in Seattle.

Esther died in 1966.

Sources

1. ↑ Document in the possession of Harvey Levitt. Wiki'd with annotations by K. Bloom.
2. ↑ Lokshen kugel: Yiddish noodle pudding, which can be savory or sweet.
3. ↑ A third child, Abraham, died in infancy.