Menachem Cohen
Menachem Cohen joined the Youth Outreach Team in 2006 and has brought his ability to build relationships and find creative strategies to engage young people we serve to the homeless youth he encountered in a safe, nonjudgmental way. Inclusive, kind and relatable are words often used to describe him. Helping to restore hope in the lives of young people who’ve felt cast aside and invisible has been his passion since day one. It is Menachem’s ability to connect with youth and adults on the street and provide leadership, training and awareness to community stakeholders that has allowed him to establish a strong presence within the homeless provider community and be seen as a trusted adult youth can depend on. His kilt and beard make him unmistakable and impossible to miss. Homeless youth have a friend in him. They can get basic needs met through him. He works to provide comfort and safety when there is none. He embodies the faith and the work of rabbi and is an inspiration to all.
— Allison McCann-Stevenson
+ 7 other nominations
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