Martin Samuel Cohen

Martin Samuel Cohen was born and raised in New York City , where he received his B.A. summa cum laude from the City University of New York and where he was ordained as rabbi in 1978. In addition to his ordination, Rabbi Cohen earned a Ph.D. in the history of ancient Judaism, which was awarded to him in 1982. The recipient of post-doctoral fellowships at the Hebrew University in 1983 and at Harvard University in 1993, Rabbi Cohen has also lectured on the History of Religion at Hunter College of the City University of New York and taught different courses in Jewish studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the Institute for Jewish Studies attached to the University of Heidelberg in Germany, the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver School of Theology. In 1986, Rabbi Cohen left Europe to come to Canada , where he accepted the pulpit of the Beth Tikvah Congregation in Richmond , British Columbia . In 1999, he left Canada to assume the pulpit of Congregation Eilat in Mission Viejo , California , the position he left in 2002 to become the rabbi of the Shelter Rock Jewish Center in Roslyn , New York .

In addition to his work as teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Cohen is an author and has published two scientific studies in the history of pre-kabbalistic Jewish mysticism, four novels and four books of essays, including the Hebrew-language Sefer Ha'ikarim Livnei Zemanenu . From 1997 to 2000, he served as chairman of the Publications Committee of the Rabbinical Assembly and is currently the chairman of the editorial board of the quarterly journal, Conservative Judaism .

An avid amateur pianist and a great lover of dogs, Rabbi Cohen is married and the father of two sons and a daughter.