Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

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, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

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.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version