The Old Soldier of Gateshead

On his eleventh yahrtzeit, there are many better qualified than I to write a tribute to Hagaon Harav Ze’ev Cohen ztz”l, for half a century the menahel ruchani of Gateshead Yeshivah. Those tributes could focus on his famed mastery of Shas and Rambam; the mix of oratory, mussar, and stories he picked up in the Yeshivas Chevron of old; or the middos that led him to forgive those who wronged him in the course of a long public career.

But my perspective takes in none of the above. Rather, it’s that of an 18-year-old bochur who had the opportunity to observe a unique encounter. Imprinted in my memory is the image of a talmid chacham whose majesty was unmistakable to the non-Jewish residents of Gateshead.

Exactly when I began to go into “Reb Ze’ev,” as he was known, I don’t remember. The Menahel — a position that was essentially a rosh yeshivah — lived next door to the storied yeshivah on Windermere Street. There were bochurim who used to learn with him, and others who’d go into him during the afternoon seder, officially to discuss their learning, but generally to bask in the warmth of his rich personality.

This, after all, was a world-class figure who’d been shaped by many influences. Although Reb Ze’ev stood at the helm of a litvish yeshivah, his father, Rav Yechiel Fishel Cohen, was a chassidic talmid chacham from Lodz, Poland, and a leading follower of the saintly Ostrovtza Rebbe.