Rabbi Deborah Bodin Cohen
Rabbi for Lifelong Education

Rabbi Deborah Bodin Cohen  (Debbie) serves as Rabbi for Lifelong Education at Temple Emanuel.  She has been part of the Temple Emanuel clergy team since 2000.  

Rabbi Cohen’s special interest area is Jewish education.  She loves to teach and develop curriculum.   At Temple Emanuel, her work focuses on the pre-school, religious school, family education and adult education.  She has written teacher manuals for Behrman House publishing and been a presenter at the national Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education conference.

Rabbi Cohen is an award-winning author of books for teens and children.   Her teen novel, Lilith's Ark -- Teenage Tales of Biblical Women, received the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Family Literature, as well as other honors.   Her children's book, The Seventh Day, was named as a notable selection by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Her books Papa Jethro and Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride were chosen as a selections for the Harold Grinspoon's PJ Library.  She has another children's book in production.  To visit Rabbi Cohen's author website, click here.

Rabbi Cohen was ordained in 1997 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. From 1997 to June 2000, Rabbi Cohen served as the first full-time Rabbi and Education Director of Beth Shalom in Cary, NC – a quickly growing congregation in the Research Triangle.   Before entering rabbinical school, Rabbi Cohen worked in Washington, DC, first as a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and, then, as a Program Associate at the Advocacy Institute.

Rabbi Cohen grew up in Columbia, MD, and graduated from the Honors English Program at the University of Michigan.   She is married to David Cohen – a journalist. They are joyfully raising their two children - Arianna Shira and Jesse Benjamin.  The Cohen family includes a Shetland Sheepdog named ToeWho (meaning: Chaos in Biblical Hebrew).

Rabbi Cohen often visits Pre-School classrooms.   Here she is reading one of the books that she wrote to the students.