Searching for a Cohen in a telephone directory is like looking for a needle in a very big haystack. With the passage of time and changing circumstances the name Cohen has mutated to Cohan, Cohn, Kahn, Kahana, Kagan, Kaplan and many other variants. Some of the changes resulted from transliterations, others were made intentionally to avoid being too identifiably Jewish.
There are of course Cohens with little or no affinity to the father of all Cohens, Aaron the brother of Moses of the tribe of Levi. The Cohens of old had privileges and responsibilities associated with their hereditary priestly status as well as a few restricting disadvantages. To this day, unemployed for almost 2,000 years after the destruction of the Second Temple, a Cohen (male of course) affiliated to Orthodox Judaism, can't marry a divorcee or a proselyte.
It occurred to me that since my mother was a Cohen I could try to claim some of the priestly privileges, however unlike being a Jew by right of a matrilineal link, the Cohen linkage is patrilineal
Belonging to the clan can now be determined genetically. Research conducted to identify a genetic link between people bearing the surname Cohen identified a specific DNA signature known as the Cohen Modal Haplotype . An interesting unexpected aspect discovered by the research workers was that some Jews who weren't Cohens as well as some non-Jews in certain places also possessed the Cohen DNA signature.
My sudden obsession with Cohens can be explained by my interest in journalists named Cohen.
I'm a frequent reader of Roger Cohen's column in the New York Times. He was born and educated in the UK. Later in life he lived for some time in the US . In autobiographic piece (“A Jew in England”) published two years ago Cohen mentions his father who came to Britain from South Africa,
“Dr. Sydney Cohen came to London and in time had the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) bestowed upon him by the queen, and was named a fellow of the Royal Society, and, most important to him, became a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.
In all, it can hardly be said that he encountered barriers in the land of Benjamin Disraeli. He embraced his adopted country, my family was assimilated and Jewishness became the minor key of our identity.”
Not withstanding that, Roger Cohen was denied entry to Westminster College because, as he found out later in life, the college had a Jewish quota.
Roger Cohen is familiar with the Middle East. I think he has a good grasp of the complexity of the Israel – Palestinian Conflict, an understanding that has led him to adopt a very critical attitude to the Israeli government. A mindset shared by many people in Israel and abroad. Even when he calls for the ending of Israel settlements construction in the West Bank he is in good company. However when his demands package includes a call to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip many Israelis disagree with him.
Last week I mentioned the apprehending of the cargo vessel Victoria and its weapons shipment. This week Hamas bombarded the Gaza periphery communities in Israel with a particularly ferocious barrage of mortar and rocket fire.
I think the mainstream opinion in Israel is that the blockade is needed to stop weapons reaching Gaza. A weapons blockade is a legitimate action.
Cohen opposed Operation Cast Lead, labelling it "wretchedly named — and disastrous" He has accused Israelis of the "slaying of hundreds of Palestinian children" in the campaign In a column he wrote after the campaign, he stated that he had "never previously felt so shamed by Israel’s actions."
Fellow NYT columnist Thomas L. Friedman is a rank and file Jew quoted a lot in my letters. He too is critical of Netanyahu’s government. However, his criticism is constructive. A few months ago I told how some cabinet ministers and their spokespersons were quick to cast aspersions on Friedman, hinting that he is a self-hating Jew and the NYT has known left-wing sympathies.
Former Ariel Sharon aid Dov Weisglass rushed to Friedman’s defence,
"His words are doubly difficult because they were uttered by a lover; a person who does not hide his deep, unalterable sympathy for the State of Israel."
As much as Roger Cohen annoys me fellow countryman Nick Cohen possesses a fresh and original charm. He is an accomplished journalist, author, and political commentator. At one time he was a strong critic of American foreign policy, however about nine years ago he underwent an ideological metamorphosis His critics have argued that he was once aligned with the left flank of the British labour party and is now an unabashed neoconservative. Later on he admitted that he was "turning... into a Tory."
He is an advisory board member of Just Journalism, an independent organisation that argues the British media is too critical of Israel, and needs to be more balanced. He supported Operation Cast Lead, writing in The Jewish Chronicle that "it was clear to me that when Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel it had declared war and had to accept the consequences. I would not have thought that five years ago." He also argued: "British Jews are living through a very dangerous period. They are the only ethnic minority whose slaughter official society will excuse."
I’m glad I live in a safe place! I’m long removed from Britain and although I have a lot of family there I really don’t know how accurate Cohen’s observations are.
Two years ago he wrote in the Jewish Chronicle,
“Today the old certainties have gone because there are two far-right movements: the white neo-Nazi parties that the Left still opposes; and the clerical fascists of radical Islam which, extraordinarily, the modern Left succours and indulges. I am not only talking about Ken Livingstone, George Galloway and their gruesome accomplices in the intelligentsia. Wider liberal society is almost as complicit. It does not applaud the Islamic far Right, but it will not condemn it either. From the broadcasters, through the liberal press, the Civil Service, the Metropolitan Police, the bench of bishops and the judiciary, anti-Semitism is no longer an unthinkable mental deformation. As long as the conspiracy theories of the counter-enlightenment come from ideologues with dark rather than white skins, nominally liberal men and women will not speak out.
Fight back and you become a Jew, whether you are or not. Mark Lawson recently described an argument at the BBC over the corporation’s decision not to screen the charity appeal for Gaza. His furious colleague declared that the only reason Lawson supported the ban was because he was Jewish. Lawson had to tell him that he was, in fact, raised a Catholic.”
In the same article entitled “Jesus! I’m turning into a Jew!” Nick Cohen introduces himself, “Despite being called ‘Cohen’ I’ve never been Jewish before”…. “The Jewish side of my family is my father’s (which is not a help, I gather). My great grandparents fled from the Tsarist Empire at the time of the pogroms, but their son, my grandfather, revolted. He became a Communist and married outside the faith. My father was brought up with no connection to Judaism and, inevitably, so was I.”
Three weeks ago relating to the current turmoil in the Middle East he wrote in the Observer about the West’s absurd obsession with Israel. “The Arab revolution is consigning skip-loads of articles, books and speeches about the Middle East to the dustbin of history. In a few months, readers will go through libraries or newspaper archives and wonder how so many who claimed expert knowledge could have turned their eyes from tyranny and its consequences.
To a generation of politically active if not morally consistent campaigners, the Middle East has meant Israel and only Israel. In theory, they should have been able to stick by universal principles and support a just settlement for the Palestinians while opposing the dictators who kept Arabs subjugated. Few, however, have been able to oppose oppression in all its forms consistently. The right has been no better than the liberal-left in its Jew obsessions. The briefest reading of Conservative newspapers shows that at all times their first concern about political changes in the Middle East is how they affect Israel. For both sides, the lives of hundreds of millions of Arabs, Berbers and Kurds who were not involved in the conflict could be forgotten.”
Apart from the mortar and rocket volleys fired on Israel from the Gaza Strip, a social workers strike and a threatened doctors strike, it has been an uneventful week. The exception of course occurred on Tuesday when former President Moshe Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison and two years of probation for rape, indecent acts, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice. The Tel Aviv District Court panel was lead by Judge George Karra assisted by Justices Miriam Sokolov and Judith Shevach. Katzav is expected to lodge an appeal in the High Court of Justice regarding the sentence. It is extremely unlikely that the high court will reverse or lessen the sentence handed down by the district court. Moshe Katsav continues to protest his innocence.
Some of Katsav’s supporters claim that he didn’t have a chance.
Being tried before a panel of judges led by a Christian Arab and two women was as bad as the news media’s Kangaroo court that tried him before and during his official trial.
The Cohens no longer able to perform their hereditary temple duties still retain a little prestige. Their precedence in reading from the Torah in the synagogue and the privilege of conducting the priestly blessing distinguish them from the rest of us. However the real “men of the cloth” are the rabbis. Many are influential opinion makers. They have a profound influence on our political system. In brief a force to be reckoned with. A Public opinion survey conducted immediately after Moshe Katsav’s sentencing revealed that while the majority of the public opposes a group of rabbis who support the former president, many among the ultra-Orthodox public agree with them.
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, who serves as chief rabbi of the Elon Moreh settlement and is also the regional rabbi of Samaria, is not numbered among Moshe Katsav’s supporters. He says former President Moshe Katsav's conviction on two counts of rape is not directly related to his actions. According to the rabbi, Katsav is being punished for not acting against the disengagement from Gaza when he was president of Israel.
According to Rabbi Levanon the question whether the former president is innocent or did in fact commit an indecent assault is irrelevant. The entire legal system is working to execute God's desire to seek revenge against a person who had the power to protest and didn’t protest.
To end on a positive note I’ll switch to Purim which was celebrated this week with a lot of pomp and circumstance. Many of the kibbutz communities and other less than Orthodox groups will be celebrating the festival on Friday night. A convenient choice enabling them to “sleep it off" the following day.
I have attached my prejudiced choice of the best Purim photograph, my grand-niece Netta Kaye.
Have a good weekend
Beni 24th of March, 2011.
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