She'ar Yashuv Cohen

Eliyahu Yosef She'ar-Yashuv Cohen (אליהו יוסף שאר ישוב כהן; November 4, 1927 – September 5, 2016) was the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel and the President of its rabbinical courts (1975–2011).

With the support of his father and the Rosh Yeshiva of Mercaz Harav, Tzvi Yehuda Kook, he led a group of youths who fought as part of the Hish in the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and helped to found the first military-religious core group that developed into a Yeshivat Hesder.

During the 1947–1949 Palestine war, Cohen defended Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, where he fought with Etzel for the Old City of Jerusalem.

He accompanied convoys of soldiers to Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, and also fought to defend the Gush.

He was severely injured in the fighting to defend the Old City, and when the Jewish Quarter fell, he was captured by the Arab Legion of the Jordanian Army.

Together with the survivors of Gush Etzion and the defenders of the Jewish Quarter, he was taken to Amman and then to the prison camp in Mafraq.

In prison, his leg was operated on, but he remained handicapped.

He became one of the leaders of the POWs, and earned the respect of both British and Arab commanders in the camp.

Cohen served in the IDF for seven years and reached the rank of Sgan Aluf (lieutenant colonel).

He participated in talks with the Jordanians on returning the remains of Jews killed in Gush Etzion during the war.

He also participated in an IDF delegation to the United States, and served in senior positions in the army rabbinate, including army chaplain and chief rabbi of the Israeli Air Force.

Cohen volunteered to fight in the Yom Kippur War and served as Chaplain of the unit that crossed the Suez Canal.

Cohen held an honorary degree in law from the law faculty of Hebrew University.

He specialized in legal advice on rabbinic rulings.

He researched Israeli law and its harmonization with the laws relating to the Land of Israel.

In 1948, while studying at Mercaz Harav, Cohen joined Brit Hahashmona'im, a resistance movement that fought against the British mandate.

He was also an active member of the Haganah.

Afterwards, he served as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem in the Mafdal (NRP) party, and continued in this role after the city was unified in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Several years after the death of Yehoshua Kaniel in 1975, Cohen replaced him as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa.

He is also President of the Harry Fischel Institute for Talmudic Research and Torah Law.

He founded the Midrasha HaGevoha LaTorah ("Advanced Torah Institute") and the Ariel Institute in Jerusalem.

In 1983 and 1993, he was a candidate for position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

He was a senior rabbinical adviser to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

He was the president of the Jerusalem Lodge of Bnai Brith, and of the Bnai Tsion "Sons of Zion" association in Israel.

He was elected twice as President of the Jewish Law Association, and three consecutive times as a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Haifa.

In 1999 Bar-Ilan University conferred upon him an honorary doctorate.

Eliyahu Yosef She'ar-Yashuv Cohen born in Jerusalem, an 18th-generation descendant in a family of rabbis and Torah scholars.

The name "She'ar-Yashuv" (שאר ישוב) is based on the eponymous son of the prophet Isaiah (see Isaiah ).

His father was Rabbi David Cohen who was known as the "Nazir of Jerusalem."

His mother was Sarah Etkin, among the founders of Omen, a religious women's organization that became the Emunah movement.

Cohen attended Talmud Torah Geulah and studied at the yeshivot "Torat Yerushalayim," "Mercaz Harav," and "Etz Hayyim."

In his youth he became close to Abraham Isaac Kook.

Yeshayahu Hadari, co-founder of Yeshivat Hakotel, said that Kook used to attend the melaveh malkah at the Cohen home and Eliyahu would play the violin.

Cohen and his sister were encouraged to become Nazirites, but they chose not to follow in their father's path, apart from remaining vegetarians.

When he was growing up, Cohen's hair was not cut, he wore canvas shoes, and he followed the Nazirite practices of his father.

At the age of 12, a special Beit Din of Jerusalem rabbis convened in his house to release him from the Nazirite vow.

Even afterwards, out of an idealism for the holiness of life, he did not eat meat including fish, nor did he drink wine.

Cohen was married to Dr. Naomi Cohen, daughter of Rabbi Dr. Hayyim Shimshon Herbert S. Goldstein, a rabbinic leader and long-time President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and other national organizations, and granddaughter of the philanthropist Harry Fischel.

His sister Rabbanit Tzefiya, was married to Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

The Cohens had a daughter, Eliraz Kraus, six grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.