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The Letters of Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon

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The Letters of Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon Baruch J. Cohon, ed.. Faithfully Yours: Selected Rabbinical Correspondence of Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon during the Years 1917-1957. Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House, 2008. xvii + 407 pp. $29.50, cloth, ISBN 978-1-60280-019-9. Reviewed by Dana Evan Kaplan Published on H-Judaic (June, 2009) Commissioned by Jason Kalman (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion) Samuel S. Cohon is a largely forgotten fgure. became popular, was deeply interested in Jewish The results of googling his name are quite limited. mysticism. Cohon helped guide the Reform move‐ Michael A. Meyer discusses him in his Response to ment through difficult terrain at a critical time in Modernity and a select number of other writers American Jewish history. Cohon is best known for have analyzed specific aspects of his intellectual his drafting of “The Columbus Platform: The Guid‐ contribution to American Reform Judaism, but ing Principles for Reform Judaism,” which is seen there has been relatively little written about Co‐ as having reversed the anti-Zionism of the “Pitts‐ hon.[1] The American Jewish Archives in Cincin‐ burgh Platform” of 1885. He is also of historical nati, Ohio, has an extensive collection of his pa‐ importance because of the role that he played in pers, and booksellers still stock a number of his critiquing the Union Prayer Book (UPB), which books, but most American Jews have no idea who was the prayer book in virtually every Reform he was. Even those with a serious interest in temple from the end of the nineteenth century American Jewish history or Reform Judaism are until the publication of The Gates of Prayer: The unlikely to know very much about him. But, from New Union Prayer Book in 1975. Cohon edited the 1923 to 1959, Cohon was one of the most influen‐ revised edition of the UPB, which was published tial Jewish theologians in the United States. Cohon in 1940; edited the Union Hagaddah (1923); and worked as a pulpit rabbi for ten years before ac‐ was a major influence on the CCAR (Central Con‐ cepting a call to become a professor of Jewish the‐ ference of American Rabbis) Rabbi’s Manual ology at the Hebrew Union College (HUC), where (1928). he taught for thirty-three years. Faithfully Yours is a collection of letters that Cohon was a leading advocate of what later Cohon wrote or received during the years 1917 to became known as “the return to tradition.” He be‐ 1957. It is not a biography or an analysis of Co‐ lieved in a transcendent God and, long before it hon’s thought. Nevertheless, the volume is a very H-Net Reviews welcome addition to the scant literature on the vice and Cohon responding with an informal reli‐ subject. The correspondence was copied and pre‐ gious ruling. Along with Israel Bettan and a few pared for publication by his widow, A. Irma Co‐ others, Cohon became a sounding board for for‐ hon, and was edited by his son, Baruch J. Cohon. mer students who encountered unusual situa‐ This book is the fnal publication in a series of tions. While the terminology is not used, the cor‐ manuscripts transcribed and edited by Irma over respondence bears a great deal of similarity with a roughly thirty-year period. When Cohon died in traditional she’elot ve-teshuvot, responsa litera‐ 1959, he left a large quantity of unpublished ma‐ ture. The material has some likeness to the Re‐ terial of various types. Irma, who was deeply de‐ form responsa published by Rabbi Solomon B. voted to her husband’s memory and to the work Freehof (for example, Reform Responsa for Our that he had done, spent the succeeding years pre‐ Time [1977]) in numerous volumes, which every paring some of these documents for publication. Reform rabbi of the generation that is now in the These included Jewish Theology (1971); Religious process of retiring had on their bookshelves. In Affirmations (1983); a combined edition of What fact, Faithfully Yours includes an extensive re‐ We Jews Believe and A Guide to Jewish Practice, view of the manuscript of one of Freehof’s earlier for the Enlightened, Modern Jew; Day Book of Ser‐ books, Reform Jewish Practice, which was pub‐ vice at the Altar as Lived By Samuel S. Cohon lished in 1944. HUC President Julian Morgenstern 1888-1959 (1978); and Mekorot Hayahadut (1988). had asked Cohon to evaluate the manuscript, Irma became ill in the fnal stages of editing the which Cohon did and sent directly to Freehof. It is Hebrew source book for Keter Publishing House, a shame that Cohon never took all of the religious and Baruch completed the task. After his mother decisions that he wrote up and reworked them passed away in 1991 and he retired in 1994, into a comprehensive guide to Reform Jewish Baruch turned his attention to continuing Irma’s practice, similar to what Mark Washofsky did two editing work, culminating in the publication of generations later (Jewish Living: A Guide to Con‐ Faithfully Yours. temporary Reform Practice [2001]). Nevertheless, The volume has a detailed table of contents, Cohon’s correspondence opens a window into which lists each letter, the date it was sent, the congregational life and particularly into the person with whom Cohon was corresponding, dilemmas that Reform rabbis faced in the period and the subject. Perhaps because of this detail, the straddling World War II. editor felt that there was no need for an index. Cohon had a great deal of confidence, pre‐ The editor included a very brief introduction, senting what he saw as the Reform position clear‐ which explains who the writer was and why the ly and without apologetics. When appropriate, he correspondence has historical significance. was able to cite from his extensive knowledge of Baruch does add comments in bold type after rabbinic literature. Scholars from the more tradi‐ some of his father’s responses, adding back‐ tional movements acknowledged that his Talmu‐ ground information that could be helpful in un‐ dic expertise was comparable with that of an Or‐ derstanding the context of Cohon’s reply. thodox posek or a Conservative professor of Tal‐ Taken as a whole, the correspondence shows mud at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Cohon’s Cohon as one of a handful of professors at HUC son told me that when Rabbi Abraham Joshua who served as religious resources for Reform rab‐ Heschel came to teach at HUC, he wanted Cohon bis facing difficult decisions in the pulpit rab‐ to be “his Rebbe.” What is particularly impressive binate. The material is fascinating, typically con‐ is how he related positively to the writings of the sisting of a former student writing to him for ad‐ classical Reform rabbis of the previous generation while presenting a significantly more traditional 2 H-Net Reviews approach to Reform Judaism. He seemed to see girls in confirmation class handed in an essay that the evolution of Reform Judaism as not only ongo‐ her husband believed had been copied from some ing but also natural. Let me give a few examples sort of published document. Cohon was able to that illustrate the nature of the material. identify it as a sermon written by Rabbi J. In 1935, Rabbi Marius Ranson of Congrega‐ Leonard Levy and sent Hilda a pamphlet with the tion Sharey Tefilo of East Orange, New Jersey, published sermon. Rabbi Lichtenberg wrote back wrote Cohon that one of the boys in his confirma‐ about a month later explaining that once he re‐ tion class had been insisting that he did not be‐ ceived the published version of the sermon, he lieve in God. The boy’s father was anxious to have went to a Mr. Zale, the secretary-treasurer of the the boy confirmed, but the mother, an “Ethical congregation. Mr. Zale told the rabbi that the be‐ Culturalist,” had expressed a deeply felt opposi‐ havior of the child did not surprise him because tion to organized religion of any type. Rabbi Ran‐ the family was known “as people to whom truth‐ son wrote that he was thinking of refusing to con‐ fulness means nothing and pretense everything.” firm the boy, and had apparently already shared They had, according to Zale, “practically no this possibility with the father, who vehemently friends in the congregation.” insisted that confirmation was not a religious rite They decided to handle the situation gently so but rather a graduation ceremony. Since the boy as not to allow the plagiarism to escalate into a had attended religious school at the synagogue for major confrontation. Zale advised the rabbi to tell the past six years, he should be entitled to gradu‐ the girl that her essay was “too good” and that she ate and attend a graduation ceremony. should rewrite it in simpler language. As soon as Cohon explained that the confirmation cere‐ the daughter returned to her house after Sunday mony was introduced by the Reform movement school and told her mother, the mother called the as a substitute for bar mitzvah, and was “essen‐ rabbi to tell him that although she did not believe tially religious in character.” The purpose of con‐ the rewrite was justified, she would nevertheless firmation, “as the very name indicates,” was not cooperate. Within a few days, the rabbi received to evaluate academic achievements but rather to the rewritten essay. Unfortunately, during the confirm “their frmness in Jewish religious convic‐ confirmation rehearsal, the girl started to recite tions.” Cohon therefore advised Ranson to exclude her original essay. The rabbi and Zale then had to the boy from the confirmation ceremony. Never‐ tell the girl’s father exactly what had happened.
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