Armond Cohen, 97, Led Cleveland Congregation for Decades
Rabbi Armond E. Cohen, who witnessed 72 years of American Jewish history as the rabbi of Park Synagogue, Ohio’s largest Conservative congregation, died Monday, the eve of his 98th birthday.
“For many generations, he represented the strength of institutional Jewish life in Cleveland,” said Joshua Skoff, Park Synagogue’s senior rabbi. “We are still benefiting from his original contribution to Jewish life.”
Cohen was born in Canton, Ohio, and moved to Cleveland at age 9 to live with his grandparents after both his parents died. He studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary and then returned to Ohio, becoming Park Synagogue’s rabbi at age 26.
“He was very strong in his determination for things like civil rights, the State of Israel and interfaith dialogue,” Skoff said.
Throughout his career, Cohen hosted such 20th-century leaders as Golda Meir, Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry Kissinger.
In the 1940s, he initiated the construction of a new 1,000-seat sanctuary and had a summer camp built on the synagogue’s grounds.
In 1983, the National Conference for Community and Justice gave Cohen its highest honor, the National Human Relations Award.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
