Menachem Hacohen

Menachem Hacohen was born in 1932 in Jerusalem

Menachem Hacohen was born in Jerusalem in 1932. His father was the rabbi and scholar Mordechai Hacohen, and his grandfather was Rabbi Avraham Zvi Shor. He studied at Talmud Torah Etz Chaim and later at the Chayei Olam yeshiva, and in 1947 he moved to the Hebron yeshiva.

He served in the Nahal and edited the military rabbinate's journal. He was a navy rabbi from 1955 to 1956 and assisted Rabbi Shlomo Goren. In February 1954 he was ordained as a rabbi by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog.

From 1967 he was rabbi of the Moshavim Movement, and he also served as rabbi of the Histadrut. He led the Religious Worker faction in the Histadrut. From 1974 to 1988 he sat in the Knesset for the Alignment and served on several committees.

In 1976 he founded a Jewish heritage center in the Old City of Jerusalem. From 1997 to 2011 he was chief rabbi of Romanian Jewry. He wrote books and hundreds of articles.

He was married to historian Dvora Hacohen and had 3 children. He received the Yakir Yerushalayim award in 2019. He died on 29 August 2025.