FEBRUARY 8 • 2024 | 49
J
N
Cohen put on tefillin for the
first time. He was hooked
— in part, he joked, because
of the “irresistible appeal of
donning a rakish black hat.”
Eventually, Rabbi Cohen
found himself at a cross-
roads. He’d been accepted
into an elite writing program
at Columbia University
and also wanted to learn
Torah in a yeshiva. A wise
rabbi advised him to attend
Columbia. Better to go
to grad school and wish
you were in yeshiva than
the other way around, he
advised.
Rabbi Cohen followed
this advice but dropped out
after two months, enrolled
in the Rabbinical College
of Morristown, New Jersey,
and learned Torah full time
for the next six years. After
that, he was a fully ordained
Orthodox rabbi.
In 1991, he married his
popular wife, Ita Leah. (“I
should consider changing
my legal name to Ita Leah’s
husband,” he joked in his
Acknowledgements page.)
The Cohens lived in New
Jersey until 2005, when they
heard about a new rabbin-
ic post in Michigan. (He
quipped, “What’s a rabbinic
post? Where they hang the
rabbi!”) The Cohens lived in
Birmingham until they relo-
cated to Oak Park in 2020.
After the move, Rabbi
Cohen spent his days learn-
ing at the new Chasidic kollel
at Congregation Dovid Ben
Nuchim. One day, his son
urged him to write a weekly
d’var Torah.
“I was pleasantly surprised
to discover that people
seemed to really enjoy read-
ing it,” shared Rabbi Cohen.
A friend suggested compiling
all his writings into a book,
and doing so became a full-
time project.
In December 2022, his
father, David H. Cohen,
passed away. This lit a fire
under Rabbi Cohen — he
was determined to honor
his father’s memory with
the publication of this book,
which took another year to
complete.
It was a very fitting dedi-
cation.
“There are so many ele-
ments of my life in this
book,” explained Rabbi
Cohen. “My father invest-
ed so much in me, from
my childhood, college, my
writing career, our time in
Birmingham … I see my
father’s hand in everything I
ever did, all the steps that led
to the creation of this book.”
The book is a fun read.
There are references to films,
musicals, plays, books and
plenty of kosher puns, such
as “
Avraham’s taking a ham-
mer to his father’s idols is
certainly a smashing story.”
It’s sprinkled with humor-
ous personal anecdotes and
jokes, obscure quotes and
bits of wisdom from ran-
dom sources and peppered
with philosophical questions
that have probably never
occurred to most people,
such as: Was Frankenstein
Jewish? When did being a
rabbi become a competitive
sport? and Who made the
seating chart for the seder?
The wise son next to the
wicked son? Are we looking
for a food fight?
Copies of Think Outside the Lox are
available at Borenstein’s, Spitzer’s
on Amazon or wherever Jewish
books are sold. To arrange a book
reading or writing workshop, email
RabbiCohen36@gmail.com.
antoniosrestaurants.com
To commemorate this milestone,
the Rugiero family is going to be
celebrating with the community with
special promotions and gifts. We will
have 60 days of celebration from
April 2nd – May 31st and then
again for another 60 days
from August 1st –
September 29th.
The Rugiero
The Rugiero
Family
Family
Celebrates
Celebrates
60 Years in
60 Years in
Business
Business
PUZZLE ANSWERS
Solution to puzzle in 2/1/24 issue.
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