Rabbi Joseph I. Cohen Family Papers

Rabbi Joseph I. Cohen (1896-1981) was born in Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey. His parents traced their ancestry back to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Rabbi Cohen served in the third division of the Turkish Army in World War I, in the Gallipoli Peninsula Campaign and, also, in the Palestine Campaign, and was held as a prisoner of war in Damascus, Syria. He later worked for the British Government in Jerusalem. Rabbi Cohen received his training for the rabbinate in Turkey, and accepted his first pulpit in Havana, Cuba in 1920 where he was spiritual leader of the Congregation union Hebraic de Cuba. In 1934, Rabbi Cohen moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and was installed as Rabbi of Congregation Or VeShalom three days after his arrival. In addition to his rabbinical duties, he served as the teacher and principal of Or VeShalom’s Hebrew School. Rabbi Cohen was also active at the Atlanta Bureau of Jewish Education, the Adult Institute of Jewish Studies, the Atlanta Jewish Federation, and was first president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Cohen officially retired in 1969, but remained active at both the synagogue and in the community until his death in 1985.