local
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
F ormer Gratz College board
member Daniel Cohen was a
student at Gratz from age 5
until 93, about a year before his death
in April 2022. He had served on the
board since 1957.

“I have been almost everything at
Gratz, from elementary school student
to chairman of the board, and from
teacher to carpool driver to parent,”
Cohen said in a September 2020 oral
history of Gratz.

Cohen’s passion for adult education,
shared by his wife Louise, lives on in
the form of a trust that still supports the
college. But now the couple’s legacy
will be cemented in Gratz’s Adult
Jewish Learning program.

Cohen’s four children finalized a
$150,000 gift to the college on May
22, matched by an anonymous donor,
intended to expand Gratz’s adult
education program.

The newly named Daniel and Louise
Cohen Adult Jewish Learning Program
will continue to grow Gratz’s noncredit
courses, continuing legal education
courses, endowed speaker series and
in-person Gratz Cafe programs. The
donation allowed Gratz to hire Rabbi
Daniel Levitt, former executive direc-
tor at Hillel of Temple University, to
become the program’s director.

The adult learning program's expan-
sion follows “the proposition that Torah
lishmah, Torah for its own sake, must
be a good thing,” Gratz President Zev
Eleff said. “We’re leaning into our role
as a cultivator and incubator of Torah
conversations.” Gratz College in Melrose Park offers
year-round courses covering the
Holocaust, Israel and Jewish history,
such as “Soviet and Post-Soviet Jewry:
175 Personal Journeys” as part of its
adult education programming, which
primarily serves retired and semi-re-
tired adults in the Philadelphia area.

6 JUNE 1, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
The Cohen family and Gratz College staff at a gathering at Gratz on May 22
Upon joining Gratz’s administra-
tion on June 1, Levitt will embark on
a listening tour of the Philadelphia
Jewish community to decide the direc-
tion of future courses and programs.

“I’m interested in hearing about what
people’s Jewish journeys have been
throughout their lives,” Levitt said. “At
this stage in their lives, if they want to
engage in further deeper Jewish learn-
ing — and, in my experience, so many
people do — what might that look like
for them?”
Levitt envisions the future of Gratz’s
adult learning to follow the beit midrash
model — a study space and community
common in Orthodox spaces, but less
so in other denominations. His goal
is to cultivate a culture of community
learning without reinventing Gratz’s
structure and curriculum.

“Right now, it’s important to not lose
sight that Gratz is already running
quality adult education programs,”
Levitt said. “And I want to maintain that
quality while expanding the number of
people engaging with them.”
Levitt will work alongside immediate
past chair of Gratz’ executive board,
chair of the communal education
committee and professor of Jewish
history Rabbi Lance Sussman.

Gratz primarily serves as a gradu-
ate school in Jewish fields, and the
college hired antisemitism scholar Ayal
Feinberg as director of the corner-
stone Center for Holocaust Studies and
Human Rights. But the adult education
program is a way for Gratz to connect
with a broader demographic, accord-
ing to Sussman.

“I like to call it the face of Gratz
College to the community,” he said. “It’s
the place where the general commu-
nity, Jewish community connects to
Gratz College.”
Since the pandemic, Gratz’s course
attendance has increased each year,
from 120 in 2021 to 160 in 2022.

According to Eleff, more than 200
people are enrolled in summer courses.

About 1,000 people attend each online
speaking event.

Gratz had a strong online presence
long before COVID back in the inter-
net’s early days, and the college has
attracted a pluralistic Jewish audience
through its online offerings.

Founded in 1895, Gratz College was
originally part of Mikveh Israel, created
by the synagogue’s treasurer at the
time, Hyman Gratz. Today, Mikveh
Israel remains a trustee of Gratz
College. Daniel Cohen was a lifelong member
of Mikveh Israel and served on the
synagogue’s board and as president.

While Cohen’s family was not Sefardic
and hailed from Ukraine, Cohen and
his brother became b’nai mitzvah at
the synagogue. His parents met at
the congregational Hebrew school
at Gratz, then part of Mikveh Israel,
and Cohen began his religious school
education at age 5.

“He was a deep lover of Judaism and
a lover of learning, really intellectually
curious about all kinds of things,” son
Jonathan Cohen said.

Cohen’s wife was equally committed
to Jewish education. She was president
of Mikveh Israel’s Women’s Association
and a docent at the synagogue and
was involved at the Hebrew Sunday
School Society of Philadelphia, now
the Hebrew Benevolent Society.

“She started studying at Gratz, too,”
Jonathan Cohen said. “I remember her
taking, in particular, Hebrew language
that she would practice with us at
home.” Though the Cohens were involved
in numerous Jewish organizations,
their children believed that the
couple’s devotion to Jewish education
should reflect where their names are
preserved. “We really have deep Gratz roots,”
Jonathan Cohen said. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Gratz College
Gratz College to Expand Adult Education
with 300K Donation



local
Rebecca Rhynhart Discusses Mayoral
Run, Next Steps After Defeat
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
also the impact of negative campaign-
ing that my daughter saw.

fter working
in two
Philadelphia mayoral admin-
istrations, serving as city
controller for more than four years
and becoming an unexpected favor-
ite in the 2023 Democratic Primary
for the fall mayoral election, Rebecca
Rhynhart is available.

Available to spend extra time with
her family, consider her next move
and open her mind to paths that may
have little to do with running the city of
Philadelphia. The 48-year-old finished second to
Cherelle Parker in the May 16 primary,
losing by a little more than 24,000
votes and almost 10%. It was a disap-
pointing finish after a race that saw the
Jewish candidate earn endorsements
from three former mayors, Ed Rendell,
John Street and Michael Nutter, and
the city’s newspaper of record, The
Philadelphia Inquirer.

But it was also a race that put
Rhynhart on the map. At the candi-
date’s election night event in Northern
Liberties, Nutter said, “Rebecca
Rhynhart will continue to do great
things in Philadelphia.”
Ten days after the election, Rhynhart
discussed her future with the Jewish
Exponent. At the beginning of her
race in November, she said her Jewish
values of empathy and fairness guided
her in her effort to solve Philadelphia’s
problems, like crime. Those same
values seem to be guiding her now.

Can you offer any details on
what your next move might be?
Courtesy of Rebecca Rhynhart for Mayor
A So, what’s next for you?
I want to have a big impact on our city
and region. I’m not going to be jumping
in to run for office anytime in the near
future. That’s not where my head is.

Where I am, is thinking about, how do I
have the biggest impact?
When you think back on
the campaign, how do you
I’m taking some time to think through
that over the summer. I’m thinking
about a few different types of ways
to approach it. The only thing I know
for sure is I’m not jumping right into
another campaign.

I’m having conversations with
leaders in the region, nonprofit as
well as private sector, to see where
I’d best fit.

Might you run again at some
point? Rebecca Rhynhart
feel about it? Was there
anything you might have done
differently? I’m proud of the race. I’m proud of
what my team did. We had a grass-
roots field organizing part of my cam-
paign about spreading the message
of what I bring to the city. I met so
many people through the race that
shared my vision.

But democracy works the way
democracy works. I came in second.

It’s a hard loss. But at the same time,
I want to focus on the positive, which
is what we built and the momentum
across the city among different groups
of people.

It says to me that, what my message
was, resonated. It will continue to be
my message. I’m not going anywhere.

A loss makes you more resilient. This
loss was heartbreaking, but at the
same time, I feel thankful for all the
amazing support that I did get.

I love Philly. My heart is 100% in the
future of our city. So, it’s emotional. I
feel it. I’m going to figure out how best
to use my voice, my experience, my
knowledge and the principles I believe
in to help our city.

What have you been doing over
the past week and a half?
I’ve just taken some time with my
family. The race has an impact on the
family. A lot of missed dinners. There’s
It’s a possibility.

What I did see throughout my
campaign is the number of people
throughout our city that believe in what
I stood for and what I stand for, which
is positive change in our city. I want to
make sure I stay connected to every-
one that believes in that.

I find that sometimes the path
forward isn’t immediately clear, but we
have to stay true to our ideals.

We have a number of serious issues
right now. We’ve got to make our
city safer. We’ve got to get the gun
violence down. We’ve got to improve
the education system so all the kids
have a real opportunity for success.

And we need to encourage business
growth. Would you consider working in
a Parker administration?
I’ll always be willing to work with her
as the mayor to help move our city for-
ward. I don’t have any interest in going
back to work for city government. But
I’d be happy to help her in any way I
could be helpful.

I’ve worked for two mayors. That’s
why I ran for mayor, and I’ll figure out
another way to have an impact. ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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