Citation (Chicago Manual of Style [bibliography]): Sussman, Lance J., "Cohn, Hillel (1938– )". In: Digital Prosopographical Handbook of Flight and Migration of German Rabbis after 1933, ed. by Cornelia Wilhelm, url: https://www.migra.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/edition/cohn-hillel-1938?v=1
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I. Family Background, Birth, and Flight from Germany
Distinction and longevity have marked Rabbi Hillel Cohn’s career. His work as a pulpit rabbi is only a small part of this man’s story. Born in Berlin on September 4, 1938, Cohn was an infant when his family fled from the Nazis in June 1939, after Rabbi Leo Baeck urged the family to leave Germany. His father, Rabbi Franklin (Fritz) Cohn (1906–1971), was a communal, rather than a congregational, rabbi and he was also a Zionist, and his influence marked his son’s future. The family, including an older sister whose name Aviva was a nod to Palestine, immigrated to the United States. Immigration to Palestine had become nearly impossible because of the British White Paper, and there was a non-quota sponsor for the Cohn family to enter the United States, namely the National Coordinating Committee in cooperation with the American-Jewish religious movements. The first six months found the family living in Washington Heights in Manhattan, where many German Jewish refugees settled after their arrival in the late 1930s. Hillel Cohn had arrived in America.
II. Childhood, Youth, and Education in the United States
The family’s stay in New York City was short-lived as their life as refugees was driven by Franklin Cohn’s desire to find employment in the new country and so their next move was to Walla Walla, Washington state, east of Seattle, through the auspices of the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society (HIAS). Classified as resident aliens, with a legal right to reside in the United States, the Cohns later moved to Seattle, where Hillel’s father was a rabbi of a conservative congregation and became a civil rights activist. In 1947, the Cohn family left Washington state and settled in North Hollywood, California. Hillel’s father left the pulpit to work for a Labor Zionist organization and volunteered at Pendleton Army Air Force Base as chaplain. It was here that young Hillel attended a middle school that had predominantly Jewish students, and it was here that he was first exposed to Black and Japanese Americans. He went on to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a Bachelor’s degree in political science. Then he was both trained and ordained as a rabbi on the campus of the newly emerging Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles and then in Cincinnati, where he also earned a Bachelor and Masters degree in Hebrew Letters. Hillel Cohn’s 1963 rabbinic thesis with the title “Toward a Program of Training in Jewish Background for Parents and Teachers in the Reform Religious School” proposed a series of pamphlets to educate Reform Jewish parents to help improve the home-school partnership. Likewise, he called for improvement in teacher training by the Reform movement. While in Cincinnati, Cohn served as a student rabbi at Temple Israel in Marion, Ohio. Hillel Cohn’s stay in Cincinnati was an eye-opening experience. He found himself in an environment that was culturally and politically strongly affected by “the South,” which was still highly segregated. Coming from a Jewish family that was forced to flee Nazi racism, as a rabbinic student he became increasingly involved in civil rights protests and was particularly sensitive to issues of race in America. In Cincinnati, Cohn also found a spouse and started a family, before he was ordained there in 1963. He married his wife Rita during rabbinic school, and they had two children, Elana and Mark. They have four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
III. Professional Life and Career
After ordination in 1963, the Cohns wanted to return to Southern California. Hillel Cohn served with Rabbi Norman F. Feldheym as Assistant Rabbi and Director of the Religious School, making use of his rabbinic studies, at Congregation Emanu El in San Bernardino, California, where he was named co-rabbi the following year. This synagogue traces its roots back to the 1850s and was the oldest congregation in that part of the state, receiving its charter in 1891; it joined the Reform movement in 1947. It was started as a community, non-denominational synagogue, which, during the beginning of Cohn’s tenure, had some 500 members. From 1953 to 2009, the synagogue was located in San Bernardino, and in 2013 a new building was dedicated in Redlands. Rabbi Feldheym was an important influence in Cohn’s career, and when Rabbi Feldheym retired in 1971, Hillel Cohn ascended to the position of senior rabbi, where he served until 2001 with a full-time professional staff. It was the only pulpit he served until his retirement. During his tenure, Cohn continued as an education director and wrote curricula for the school.
Both his father and Rabbi Feldheym influenced Hillel Cohn. He thus had the background to become involved in civil rights and interfaith activism, and he was further influenced by Martin Luther King, the “I Have a Dream” march in August 1963, and was particularly motivated by fellow German Rabbi Joachim Prinz, who was a renowned activist of his time. Cohn was a supporter of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the purpose of which included grassroots activism and the empowerment of young people and in particular, Black communities, publicly focusing on desegregation and voting rights, among other goals. Because of his activities he met important and very public activists like Caesar Chavez and Sammy Davis, Jr. Cohn wanted to participate in marches in other cities, like St. Augustine, Florida, in the spring in 1964,1 but he stayed close to home for a time with his pregnant wife. In 1964, there was obvious discrimination in San Bernardino, especially at Arrowhead Country Club. Also in that year, Cohn clashed with (later Judge) Marcus Kaufman over segregated rental housing, and he was also vocal about insensitive and racist mayors.
Cohn was clearly devastated by the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 and joined in a demonstration while wearing High Holy Day robes and carrying a torah. There was some pushback by his congregation, but Cohn remained outspoken and continued to be actively involved with causes in which he believed. He performed draft counseling during the Vietnam War, helping to secure deferments and became a member of several peace organizations.
Cohn found a further leadership role in his community and became active with local Catholic dioceses. He was a founding member of the San Bernardino Human Rights Commission, and had a leading part in local television, including appearing in some 50 episodes of “The Many Faces of San Bernardino.” In addition, he was active in Planned Parenthood and spent 35 years of his career as part of a Priest-Rabbi Dialogue. He was a president of the San Bernardino Clergy Association and a chair of the Inland and Desert Hillel Council, serving college students. His leadership and membership activities are truly too many to mention.
Dedicated to life-long learning throughout his life, Hillel Cohn earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Claremont School of Theology in Ethics and Communications in Los Angeles in 1984 to improve his professional skills.
His activism also centered on the Reform movement, becoming a leader in several realms. He served as a treasurer of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), served as an editor of the monthly CCAR newsletter, served on the Board of Trustees of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), and was a president of National Association of Retired Reform Rabbis (NARRR). In addition, Cohn wrote “Haggadah for Passover” in 1987 and a book chapter on Jewish-Catholic relations. He composed two national award-winning curricula for his synagogue’s religious school. Cohn’s role as a multifaith leader, a person that served the Jewish community, but also the larger civic community, a person dedicated to civil life and cooperation in the San Bernadino area, an area where he spent most of his professional life, translates into a unique legacy of his life and career.
Hillel Cohn retired – for the first time – in 2001. After a move with his wife to Las Vegas, he became an interim rabbi at congregation Adat Ari El from 2002 to 2007. Following that position, he became a part-time rabbi of Sun City Jewish Congregation in Palm Desert, California. Today, Cohn continues to speak, write, share, and advocate for multicultural dialogue from his hometown. His leadership and advocacy have continued throughout his long and illustrious career.
IV. Legacy
What distinguishes Rabbi Cohn is his community involvement. He has focused on civil rights, medical care, human relations, interfaith work, and local government. Like his father, he is a well-respected community activist. In addition, Cohn has had an impact as a leader of Reform Judaism, serving as a mediator between rabbis and congregations. Not unsurprisingly, the institutions he has worked with honored Rabbi Dr. Cohn generously. In 1988, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from his alma mater, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati to recognize 25 years of pulpit service in 2017 he was honored by the California State University, San Bernardino with the establishment of an annual endowed lecture series in Rabbi Cohn’s name, which brings Jewish scholars regularly to San Bernardino. This was particularly noteworthy because he was the first rabbi to be honored by the California State University system. At his synagogue, Temple Emanu-El in San Bernardino, in 1988, in his twenty-fifth year serving the synagogue, the Social Hall was named after Hillel Cohn. These are only few of the many honors he has received in his lifetime including the fact that he also inspired several students to become rabbis. Cohn was the recipient of numerous community awards, including but not limited to carrying the Olympic torch as a “Community Hero” in 1996, receiving the “Man in the Spirit of Martin Luther King” Award from the African-American Churches of the Inland Empire, and the Dale Evans-Roy Rogers Award.
Rabbi Cohn has been an active participant and leader in many impactful organizations and has been recognized with numerous awards for his extraordinary contributions. His long and outstanding career is marked by serving his community well, providing a unique and lasting legacy.
California State. “Hillel Cohn.” https://www.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/alumni/Honorary-Degrees/Pages/hillel-cohn.aspx.
CSUSB Scholar Works. Wilmer Amina Carter Foundation 2024. “Hillel Cohn.” Audio and video recording by Jennifer Tilton. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/bridges/146/.
Phone interview with Rabbi Michael Berk, December 18, 2025, by Lance J. Sussman.
Congregation Emanu El, Redlands. “Rabbi Emeritus Hillel Cohn.” https://emanuelsb.org/our-staff-2/.
Office of the Chaplain. “Rabbi Hillel Cohn.” https://chaplain.house.gov/chaplaincy/display_gc.html?id=1129.
Inland Empire Community Foundation. “Rabbi Hillel Cohn”. https://www.iegives.org/about/rabbi-hillel-cohn/.
Rotary Club. “Rabbi Hillel Cohn.” http://www.peaceconference2016.org/rabbi-hillel-cohn. Cohn, Hillel, Toward a Program of Training in Jewish Background for Parents and Teachers of the Reform Religious School. Master of Hebrew Letters Thesis and Rabbinical and Rabbinical Ordination. Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, 1963. http://library.huc.edu/pdf/theses/Cohn_Hillel-CN-Rab-1963_rdf.pdf.
California State University, San Bernardino. CSUSB Scholar Works, Bridges Digital Archive: Audio and Video Recordings, Recording 146, videorecording and transcript, December 2024. scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/bridges/146/.
IfZ. Biographische Dokumentation Der Deutschsprachigen Emigration. MA 1500/77. “Hillel Cohn.” 1980. MA 1500/77.
Congressional Record (Bound Volumes 147, no. 2 (2001). “Tribute to Rabbi Hillel Cohn, on the Event of His Retirement.” U.S. Government Publishing Office. www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRECB-2001-pt2/html/CRECB-2001-pt2-Pg2734-2.htm.
California State University, San Bernardino, Anthropology Museum. “Baby Shoes and Identity Documents Courtesy of Rabbi Hillel Cohn.” www.csusb.edu/anthropology-museum/exhibitions/previous-exhibitions/recollect-memories-childhood/baby-shoes-and.
Congregation Emanu El, San Bernadino. “Our Staff.” emanuelsb.org/our-staff-2/.
Office of the Chaplain, United States House of Representatives. “Rabbi Hillel Cohn Congregation Emanu El San Bernardino, CA.” chaplain.house.gov/chaplaincy/display_gc.html?id=1129.