Yohanan Cohen

Yohanan Cohen was born in 1917 in Łódź

Cohen was born in Łódź in 1917. He finished high school there and led the local branch of the HaNoar HaTzioni youth movement. In 1937 he moved to Mandatory Palestine.

In the Land of Israel he studied at the Hebrew University and helped found Tel Yitzhak, where he lived until 1959. He joined the Haganah in 1938 and served as a settlement policeman from 1941 to 1944. During the War of Independence he commanded a company in the Golani Brigade.

From 1950 to 1953 he sat on the central committee of the Histadrut. As a member of the Progressive Party leadership, he entered the Third Knesset in 1957 in place of Yeshayahu Forder and served on its Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1960. He served as consul general in Boston and headed the Eastern Europe department. He was ambassador to Romania from 1973 and to Finland from 1976.

In retirement he worked to preserve the memory of the Holocaust at the Massuah institute. He wrote several books. He died in 2013 and was buried at Tel Yitzhak.