She'ar Yashuv Cohen

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