58 | AUGUST 11 • 2022 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

I

t was Oct. 6, 1973. Canadian 
singer-songwriter and poet 
Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) 
was 39, wondering about his 
role in life. He was not yet a 
universally renowned per-
former. In fact, Cohen had 
announced he 
was retired and 
felt he could no 
longer perform 
or create. Living 
on the Greek 
Island of Hydra 
with his lover, 
photographer 
Suzanne Elrod, and their infant 
son, Cohen was trying to find 
himself. It wasn’t going well. 
Suddenly, there was news of 
an attack on Israel led by Egypt 
and Syria. The Yom Kippur War 
had begun and Israel was fight-
ing for its existence. Moved by 
the news, Cohen flew to Israel 
as soon as he could get a flight. 
He never really explained why 
he believed had to go to war. 
Cohen had deep Jewish 
roots. His family was promi-
nent in Montreal. Although he 
never promoted his faith, his 
deep, abiding relationship to 
his Jewishness is obvious in his 
music and his life. His actions 
in the Yom Kippur War also 
show his affinity for Israel.
Cohen arrived in Tel Aviv, 
uncertain as to what he should 
do to help. He sat rather forlorn 
at a café until coincidence, hap-
penstance or Divine fate inter-
vened. A group of musicians 
recognized Cohen and persuad-
ed him to join them. They were 

headed to the front lines of the 
war to entertain Israeli troops. 
Cohen sang to front-line 
troops during the most des-
perate days of the Yom Kippur 
War. At times, he was in dan-
ger, and he saw the death and 
destruction that war so amply 
provides. Many of the soldiers 
did not speak English; Cohen 
could not speak Hebrew. Many 
soldiers wondered who this 
man was and why he was there. 
Yet, he sang and troops were 
moved by his music and his 
presence. Cohen wrote one of 
his most famous songs, “Lover, 
Lover, Lover,
” while at Israel’s 
Hatzor Air Force Base. 
At the end of the war, Cohen 
was rejuvenated and he would 
go on to become an interna-
tional star. The experience was 
pivotal to his life and career, 
but he rarely mentioned it. In 
his new book, Who By Fire: 
Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, 

Matti Friedman does his best 
to explain the enigma that is 
Cohen in the Yom Kippur War.
A Canadian himself, 
although born four years after 
the war, Friedman may be 
uniquely equipped to provide 
insight into Cohen’s experi-
ence. Friedman is a fine writer/
journalist and a painstaking 
researcher. He immigrated 
to Israel as a teenager and 
served in the Israel Defense 
Forces during the South 
Lebanon conflicts of the 1990s. 
Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s 
Story of a Forgotten War (2016) 
is Friedman’s widely acclaimed 
memoir of this experience. 

MULTI-SOURCED
For Who By Fire, Friedman 
uses three unique resources: 
his interviews with Israelis, 
including war veterans; 
Cohen’s own notebooks from 
the era (although cryptic 

at best, Cohen kept note-
books throughout his life); 
and a 45-page incomplete, 
unpublished manuscript 
that Friedman discovered 
in the archives at McMaster 
University in Hamilton, 
Ontario. Although the man-
uscript is not a traditional 
narrative — it is the writing of 
Cohen, after all, which often 
defies interpretation — but it 
does constitute Cohen’s con-
temporary account of the war.
Friedman’s work presents 
the background and details 
of the war and the era, and a 
bit of music history as well. 
The excellent historical narra-
tive is greatly enhanced with 
prose from the Cohen manu-
script. In this sense, the sing-
er has his own voice between 
Friedman’s description of 
events. This is a very insight-
ful, effective literary device.
After the war, Cohen wrote 
and sang his way into interna-
tional acclaim before he died 
in 2016. There is still great 
interest in his career and work. 
For example, there is the recent 
release of a documentary about 
Cohen and his most famous 
song, “Hallelujah.
”
Who By Fire is a fine book 
about Cohen in the Yom 
Kippur War and provides read-
ers with new insights into the 
poet/songwriter. Friedman gets 
as close to Cohen as any biog-
rapher possibly can; however, 
I’m not sure anyone but Cohen 
really knew what Cohen was 
thinking. 

A review of Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai 
by Matti Friedman. Spiegel & Grau: New York, 2022.

Leonard Cohen and 
the Yom Kippur War

Mike Smith
Contributing 
Writer

Leonard Cohen in 1988

GORUPDEBESANEZ

