A Remembrance of Ezra Cohen

Robert Clancy

[Reprinted from the Henry George News, July, 1960. This remembrance was unsigned, with the title "Exra Cohen, A Friend of the Race Has Gone." Robert Clancy is assumed to be the writer]

As vice president, and long a member of the board of trustees of the Henry George School, Ezra Cohen devoted his life to the establishment of freedom and justice for all mankind. To this he gave the fullest measure of his strength and sincerity. He was a man of principle and integrity - an unfailing source of wise counsel and encouragement. The personal affection in which he was held by fellow trustees, faculty members and hundreds of students, was boundless. Death came on June 13th after a brief illness.

In a service of great beauty at the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York, where he had been for years the leader of the congregation, it was said of Mr. Cohen that he was compassionate, righteous and loving - a sweet person, a tender man, a versatile man and a gentle man.

He loved the cause of his congregation and of the Henry George School, for he loved to serve his fellow man. Mrs. Cohen graciously affirming her husband's interest, requested that floral tributes be omitted at the funeral in favor of contributions to the work of the Henry George School.

Ezra Cohen, at the early age of six, was introduced to the philosophy of Henry George by his father. As a result of a lifelong conviction, many now active in the movement are what they are by grace of his 20 years on the faculty of the Henry George School.

"He wrote a glorious biography across God's sky," his rabbi said, "and has now found that great fraternity to whom we can all turn for moments of inspiration. May his memory continue to bless us."