Religionשלום כהן

Shalom Cohen

Shalom Cohen was a Haredi Sephardi rabbi in Jerusalem, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Old City and president of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah council.

1930 to 2022Heading Porat Yosef YeshivaSpiritual leadership of ShasPresident of Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah

Born: 3 November 1930, Jerusalem
Died: 22 August 2022, Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital
Occupation: rosh yeshiva, religious leader
Party: Shas

Shalom Cohen was born in 1930 in Jerusalem

Shalom Cohen was born in Jerusalem on 3 November 1930. His father, Rabbi Efraim Cohen, was a Sephardi kabbalist who had come from Iraq and headed a kabbalist yeshiva housed at Porat Yosef in the Old City.

As a child he studied at the Bnei Zion Talmud Torah and then moved on to Porat Yosef Yeshiva. He studied in pairs with Rabbi Tzvi Simantov and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He married Yael, daughter of Rabbi Mansour Ben Shimon, and the couple had 8 children.

After his wedding he began teaching at Porat Yosef and taught students for decades. He headed the Old City branch of the yeshiva. He did not write books, but his students published his teachings.

In 1984 he joined the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas at the request of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. After Yosef died in 2013, Cohen became president of the council in 2014. He took hard-line positions, including opposing the draft of yeshiva students and academic studies for Haredi women.

He died in Jerusalem on 22 August 2022. He was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery beside his wife.