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David L. Cohen Nominated Ambassador to Canada
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
announced plans on July 21
to nominate David L. Cohen,
former vice chairman of the
board of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia and a
Comcast executive, to serve as
the United States ambassador
to Canada.

Jewish Federation President
and CEO Michael Balaban
expressed his support for
Cohen. “We are proud that David
L. Cohen, one of Jewish
Philadelphia’s most prominent
leaders, has been nominated to
serve as ambassador to Canada,”
Balaban said. “In his various
roles within our community
throughout the years, David L.

Cohen has demonstrated time
and again his ability to navigate
tricky waters; he is the consum-
mate negotiator. He has been a
wonderful partner to our Jewish
Federation, and we know he will
continue to make us all proud.”
Though now the senior
adviser to the CEO at Comcast,
Cohen has long been involved
in Philadelphia and national
politics, serving as chief of
staff to former Philadelphia
Mayor Edward Rendell, as well
David and Rhonda Cohen
served as co-chairs for the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s
fundraising campaign in 2017.

Courtesy of The Jewish Exponent
as host of Biden’s first official
fundraiser for his presidential
campaign in April 2019 in his
Philadelphia home. Cohen also
was a partner at and chairman
of Ballard Spahr Andrews
& Ingersoll, LLP, one of the
country’s 100 largest law firms.

In addition to serving as
Comcast’s senior executive vice
president, Cohen’s time at the
Philadelphia-based company
was shaped by his desire
to champion diversity and
equality in his communities as
Comcast’s chief diversity officer.

In that role, Cohen helped
build a partnership with the
National Urban League,
an organization providing
professional development,
counseling, and youth empow-
erment programming to Black
Americans. He also was an avid
supporter of “Comcast Cares
Day,” a company-wide day of
volunteerism, which he called
his “favorite day of the year.”
According to Comcast, the
annual event is an opportu-
nity for the 100,000 Comcast
employees to volunteer at more
than 1,000 organizations,
including UnidosUS, Boys &
Girls Clubs of America and Big
Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Cohen believes that Judaism
has instilled in him the values
of encouraging diversity and
acceptance. “One of my great passions
is to bring people of diverse
backgrounds and cultures
together,” Cohen said in an
interview with the Jewish
Exponent in 2013. “This is the
way I try to live my life.”
His work to promote equality
at Comcast extended further
to the Jewish Federation,
where he and his wife, Rhonda
Cohen, were co-chairs for
the Jewish Federation’s 2017
annual campaign.

During his time as vice
chairman, Cohen wanted to
extend the Jewish Federation’s
reach beyond support for
Israel, pushing to educate the
community on local issues,
such as poverty, that were
impacting the community.

“Twenty years ago, you say,
‘Federation’ and people are
thinking support for Israel,”
Cohen said to the Exponent
in 2017. “And there is this
sense among too many in the
Jewish community that there
aren’t a lot of poor Jews living
in Philadelphia, that there
aren’t hunger issues and social
service issues and education
issues within this community.”
In 1993, the Anti-Defamation
League awarded Cohen the
Americanism Award, which
honors community leaders
advocating for human rights
and equity.

“My friend David is a world-
class guy. He’s smart, savvy,
astute, politically adroit,
well-liked, discrete, a problem
solver and a multi-dimensional
thinker,” said Stephen Cozen,
founder of Philadelphia-based
law firm Cozen O’Connor and
vice chairman of the board of
the Jewish Federation along-
side Cohen. “The president
likes and trusts him. He will
be a great ambassador for an
important post. Besides all of
that, he is philanthropic and a
real mensch.”
If confirmed, Cohen will have
to navigate COVID-19 restric-
tions and economic recovery
following the pandemic.

On July 21, the Biden
administration extended travel
restrictions to Canada until
Aug. 21, due to concerns about
the more contagious delta
variant. The U.S. and Canada
are working together to fund
Gavi, the global vaccine
alliance, and COVAX, with the
goal of increasing global access
to COVID-19 vaccines.

“I look forward to working
with our neighbors in Canada, and
continuing to develop and grow
what is a very strong and important
relationship as we continue to
fight the pandemic and build our
economies back stronger,” Cohen
said in a statement.

Having grown up in Highland
Park, New Jersey, Cohen
attended Swarthmore College in
1977, earning bachelor’s degrees
in political science, history and
economics. He graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania
Law School in 1981. Cohen
served as chair of Penn’s board
of trustees until July 1, 2021.

Biden nominated University
of Pennsylvania President Amy
Gutmann as U.S. ambassador to
Germany earlier this month. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
Two Prominent Rabbis Retiring Next Year
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
NEXT SUMMER, the Phila-
delphia region will lose two of
its longest-tenured rabbis.

After 21 years, Lance
Sussman is stepping down
as senior rabbi at Reform
Congregation Keneseth Israel
in Elkins Park. And after 27
years, Aaron Krupnick is doing
the same at Congregation Beth
El in Voorhees, New Jersey.

Both men are leaving behind
4 JULY 29, 2021
significant legacies, according
to congregants.

KI and Beth El maintain
congregations of about 800
and 825 families, respectively.

And during their respec-
tive rabbinates, Sussman and
Krupnick oversaw the build-up
of preschool operations that
sustained their synagogues for
another generation.

But since Sussman is 67 and
Krupnick is 60, both men feel
they are entering new stages in
their lives.

Between October 2020 and
June 2021, Sussman experi-
enced a hospitalization after
a double bypass operation,
the death of his mother and
a move to Philadelphia. He
said the nine-month stretch
made him realize he wanted
to spend more time with
his wife, Liz Sussman, and
their five children and two
grandchildren. “You get to see life from the
other side,” Sussman said of his
hospitalization. Krupnick said he always
thought about retiring in his 60s.

JEWISH EXPONENT
And in recent years, he thought
about it more and more.

He knew he couldn’t see
the future of Judaism like
he could in his 30s, when he
pushed for the creation of
Beth El’s preschool: The Early
Childhood Center. Krupnick
also said he wants to see what
God has in store for him while
he’s still physically fit.

“Jewish life needs to evolve,”
Krupnick said.

Sussman came to KI in 2001
after 11 years at Temple Concord
in Binghamton, New York.

At first, the KI search
committee didn’t want to hire
him, according to its chair at
the time, Karen Sirota. Sussman
was leading a temple with about
250 congregants. KI’s member-
ship, on the other hand,
consisted of 1,200 families.

At the same time, Sirota and
the committee liked Sussman’s
resume, so they decided to
visit Binghamton and observe
him. After the Friday night
Shabbat service, they couldn’t
get a minute with the rabbi. He
was busy talking to congregant
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM