Beth Israel is proud to welcome our new Rabbi to our Congregation. Rabbi Phil Cohen, PHD has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Dickinson College, a Master’s Degree in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College and was ordained in 1983 from the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, in New York. After rabbinical school, he attended Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where he received a Ph.D. in Near Eastern/Judaic studies with a specialty in Jewish thought.
Rabbi Phil has served congregations across the country. He has taught in churches and other houses of worship across the country to broaden and deepen interfaith community.
Rabbi Cohen is also an award-winning author. He stands in a line of rabbis who’ve expressed themselves through fiction, including Milton Steinberg, Chaim Potok, Herbert Tarr, Joseph Telushkin, and Mark D. Angel. Nick Bones Underground, Cohen’s first novel, may be the first speculative fiction novel penned by a rabbi.
Rabbi Phil’s passion for storytelling emerges from his love of reading fiction and his commitment to the Jewish tradition. Through his education, he’s learned how to create and interpret stories, how to grapple with philosophical questions, and how to write fiction. From his rabbinic work, he’s gained insight into the world, both the physical world, and the world that lies inside us all. For him, writing fiction is his attempt to grapple with both the physical and what lies inside us all.
He is the author of more than twenty published stories, dozens of articles and papers and of the eBook Lucky 13. He blogs for The Times of Israel, as well as at his website, philmcohen.com. He writes flash fiction, short stories, novels, as well as all things clergy write.
We heartily welcome Rabbi Phil and his wife Betsy Gamberg to Beth Israel.