A Short Assessment of Gerson Cohen’s View of Judaism and His Contributions to Conservative Judaism
Authors: Basaran Ismaıl 
Published: July 2021

Cohen was born in New York to a Hebrew-speaking, moderately Jewish Orthodox and Zionist family of Russian origin. Cohen completed his undergraduate education in the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA) in 1943, which is the main center of Conservative Judaism, and simultaneously, in New York City College in 1944. Cohen also received his master's degree in JTSA and his rabbinic diploma in 1948. Cohen completed his doctorate at the University of Columbia in 1958.Having studied Hebrew at a young age, Cohen has an important place in Conservative Judaism that is a branch of American Judaism. Cohen, who first started working as a librarian in JTSA (1950), started teaching Jewish History and Literature in the following years, and later continued as a professor. Cohen, who was the chancellor of JTSA between 1972-1986, is one of the best-known chancellors as he was the first chancellor to ordain a woman rabbi in Conservative Judaism. During his term, Cohen tried to make JTSA as a center of higher Jewish education for all Jews in the United States, especially for Jewish teachers, administrators and rabbis, and gave great importance to Torah studies, Zionism, Halakha and Hebrew learning and placed them in the center of Conservative Judaism.With a historicist approach, Cohen saw today's Judaism as a continuation of historical Judaism. In his eyes, all Jewish religious education institutions in America, such as the JTS, were no different from the Yavneh academy in terms of their functions. He also regarded diversity as natural and was not afraid to use the term "Conservative Judaism" as a detached group. Cohen was telling his colleagues at the JTS that the Conservative movement should take pride in its achievements and thinking that the institutionalization of Jews in the American diaspora was vital for future generations.Cohen's most striking idea was that he saw assimilation as a positive element for Jews. According to Cohen, it was justifiable that assimilation has a positive value when evaluated within the historical context of Judaism. For him, assimilation and cultural change should be seen as renewal, because these two factors stimulate the revival of Jewish thought life and contribute to the continuity of tradition. Although Cohen's idea was viewed by some as a creative idea, but mostly was criticized by Jewish circles. According to criticisms, Jews have suffered greatly in history due to assimilation, causing Jews not to survive for centuries. Especially in the Hellenistic and Greek periods, they lost their names, their language and even abandoned the sacred language of worship, which is Hebrew.Cohen's expression of the ''Jewish Group'', additionally describing the Jews as a minority with the phrase; ''Jews have always been a minority and will no doubt remain a minority'' has alienated and isolated the Jews. While Cohen advocates dialogue between Jews in the diaspora (including other religions and other Jewish sects) with the external environment, on the other hand, seeing them as a "minority" and isolating them constitutes a great contradiction. Cohen also regards the support of Zionism and the State of Israel as a duty of every Jew in order to have "a healthy Israel". His Zionist family and environment, in which he grew up in his childhood, had a great influence on this idea. Indeed, Cohen's participation in the establishment of the Zionist organization, Merkaz, in Israel and the opening of JTS's branches and some schools in Israel, support his Zionist view. But this approach can be seen as a factor that weakens diaspora Judaism and can prevent it from acting independently.