Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Romi Cohn on 29 January 2020

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the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Romi Cohn

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28 March 2020 under the Public Domain (17 U.S. Code §105 - Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works)

Categories:

International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, United States of America

Tags:

Prayers of Guest Chaplains, 116th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Avraham Hakohen “Romi” Cohn, Congregation Ohr Yechezkel, Brooklyn, New York
Sponsor: Rep. Max Rose (D-NY)
Date of Prayer: 01/29/2020

Mr. ROSE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Rabbi Romi Cohn, a leader on Staten Island and a dear, dear friend.
Rabbi Cohn has dedicated his life to Jewish culture and heritage and built a renowned career as a mohel in New York City for over 25 years. I am especially honored to welcome Rabbi Cohn this week as we remember the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Rabbi Cohn’s career is merely a continuation of a lifetime of fighting for the Jewish faith. His early life was uprooted by the rise of the Nazi Party, their invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the outbreak of World War II. Under Nazi rule, he saw the Hitler Youth attack his father in the street.
When war broke out, he joined the partisans fighting Nazi tyranny. At 15 years old, Romi was the youngest member of the Czechoslovakian partisan forces. Among other feats, he helped save 56 Jewish families escape the horrors of the Holocaust.
He fought with the partisans until the end of the war and then went in search of his own family. Of his parents and six siblings, only his father and two sisters had survived.
Rabbi Cohn saw how a democracy can be corrupted into a fascist dictatorship and what happens when anti-Semitism is allowed to fester.
Sadly, across this country, we see an alarming rise in anti-Semitism and hatred. Rabbi Cohn’s legacy reminds us never to accept bigotry, not when we see it in the street, not when we saw it in the Halls of Congress, not when we see it anywhere. Our freedoms are not free. We must fight for them or risk losing them.
Rabbi Cohn is a model and example for all of us to follow, and I thank him for his extraordinary life of service.

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Almighty, open my lips. May the words of my mouth declare Your praise.^[1] Psalms 51:17 With profound humility and deep appreciation, I stand before You.
	As a young boy of 13 years, I was condemned to be dead, to be murdered along with my entire family, including my 3-year-old little sister, by one evil man, may his name be erased forever. But my life was spared. I was saved by my Father, by You, O Lord, the Father of the Universe, who brought me to the shores of this beautiful country, the United States of America, the land of the free, where I found a safe and new home.
	As I stand before you on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, I offer humble words of praise and gratitude to the Almighty. Blessed are You, King of the Universe, who has granted me life and sustenance to this day.^[2] cf. the “sheheḥiyanu” blessing. Amen.
	May You, Lord, accept with mercy our prayers for our country; for our President, Donald Trump; our Vice President, Michael Pence; my Congressman, Max Rose; and all his noble colleagues.
	O Mighty King of the Universe, as Your humble servant, I bestow this blessing upon Your children. May the Lord bless you and protect you. Amen. May the Lord deal kindly and graciously with you. Amen. May the Lord bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace. [Amen]^[3] cf. the “Priestly Blessing,” Numbers 6:22-27.

Source(s)

116th Congress, 2nd Session. Congressional Record, Issue: Vol. 166, No. 19 — Daily Edition (January 29, 2020)

link: https://chaplain.house.gov/archive/index.html?id=3055

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Psalms 51:17
2	cf. the “sheheḥiyanu” blessing.
3	cf. the “Priestly Blessing,” Numbers 6:22-27.

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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Romi Cohn on 29 January 2020” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

the Congressional Record of the United States of America

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Printing Office and issued when Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Statutory authorization for the Congressional Record is found in Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code. (wikipedia)

Romi Cohn

Avraham Hakohen Cohn — Romi was a nickname he adopted in America, and he was usually called Rabbi Cohn — was born in Pressburg, now known as Bratislava, the capital of what is now Slovakia, on March 10, 1929. He was one of seven children. When the Germans marched into Czechoslovakia and deported Jews to concentration camps, his family managed to spirit him across the border to Hungary. His mother, two brothers and two sisters perished in the camps. He studied at a Hasidic yeshiva until 1944, when the Germans occupied Hungary and deported tens of thousands of Jews to Auschwitz. He managed to slip back into Czechoslovakia and joined up with a partisan brigade battling the retreating Germans. With the German defeat, Mr. Cohn rejoined his father and two sisters in Pressburg. After the war, Mr. Cohn made his way to the United States and became wealthy developing thousands of single-family homes on Staten Island. He also turned himself into an expert mohel, performing thousands of circumcisions and writing scholarly articles. He even set up an operating theater in his Staten Island home to circumcise adult Russian Jews who had not been able to undergo the ritual as infants because of Soviet strictures. He described his wartime experiences in an autobiography, The Youngest Partisan published in 2001. (via his obituary in the New York Times)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17