‘It was never a job—it was a passion’

Merle Cohen calls her Lion of Judah pin the most important piece of jewelry she has ever owned. That summarizes everything you need to know about her.

This winter, she retired from JUF, after 25 years as a JUF professional-having first logged some 20 years as a lay leader. “It was never a job– it was a passion,” she said. “I had a meaningful and exciting career, full of wonderful memories.”

Cohen has been a Chicago Jewish community leader for over 40 years, and yet remains as unassuming as she is dedicated, as selfless as she is passionate. 

A $35 Women’s Division gift to the JUF Annual Campaign in 1975 launched what became the major commitment of Cohen’s adult life. After joining the JUF Young Women’s Board in 1978, she served as campaign chair, followed by her tenure as president.

She went on to become an active member of the JUF Board of Directors, where she served on multiple major committees, including the executive committee. Nationally, she served as a member of the UJA Young Leadership Cabinet and UJA Women’s Division. In 1984, she was honored with JUF’s Davis, Gidwitz & Glasser Young Leadership Award. 

Cohen shared a passion for Jewish peoplehood with Larry Cohen– her husband of more than 50 years. Together, they served on the Young Leadership Cabinet of the former United Jewish Appeal. They studied in the first cohort of the Wexner Foundation’s Leadership Development Program. They have been longtime supporters of Solomon Schechter Day School, attended by their three now-grown children. While Cohen grew up on the South Side, they settled in Chicago’s northern suburbs, and became active in Deerfield’s Moriah Congregation.

On the international stage, the Cohens were dedicated to the movement to free Soviet Jews. In 1981, they spent 10 days meeting with refuseniks in the former Soviet Union- where they were accosted by the KGB.

Their love of the Jewish state has been a through line in their marriage. “Our commitment to Israel’s support and safety has run through our entire married life,” Cohen said. “Our devotion to Israel is about Jewish peoplehood, the land, and the fulfillment of God’s promise in our lifetime.”

They traveled to Israel many times, including hosting multiple JUF missions as lay leaders.

It was 25 years ago that Dr. Steven B. Nasatir, then-JUF President, asked Cohen to pivot from a volunteer to professional role and become the first director of development for the newly founded Jewish Women’s Foundation- which Cohen called one of her “proudest professional achievements.”

When the Jewish Women’s Foundation was firmly established in Chicago, she moved on to become a donor officer and a vice president of the JUF Annual Campaign, where she continued to serve the community in a professional capacity.

At the 2018 JUF Lion Luncheon, Cohen received the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award– given every other year to one woman in each North American Jewish community who exemplifies the spirit of the Lion of Judah by a proven commitment to the Jewish community. In bestowing the award, Adrienne Kriezelman, president of the JUF Women’s Board at the time, called her “a community treasure.”

Then, in 2019, Cohen ably staffed JUF’s $60 million Fund for the Future campaign– an effort launched in honor of Nasatir– to infuse funding into Jewish gateway experiences for the next generation. Today, she considers him both a mentor and a friend. “I have no words for the faith he had in me,” she said. “I would have never had these opportunities without him.”

In her retirement, she looks forward to spending more time with family-Larry, their three married children, and eight grandchildren. And she is already doing just that. She closed her Jewish Chicago interview by saying, “I have to go make chicken soup– my kids are coming.”