Rabbanit Shoshana Cohen, Mother of Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, Dies at 90

Rabbanit Shoshana Cohen, the mother of Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yafo and a leading rabbinic figure for Bukharian Jews in Israel, died overnight before Friday, Oct. 9, 2026 (28 Tishrei). She was 90, Kikar HaShabbat reported.

She was also the mother of Rabbi Zamir Cohen, head of the Avnei Nezer yeshiva; Rabbi Avichai Cohen, a ram at Yeshivat Heichal Meir; and Rabbi Zohar Cohen, head of the Ateret Reuven yeshiva in Beitar Illit, according to Kikar.

Her late husband, Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, served for decades as gabbai and chazzan of the central Mussayoff synagogue in Jerusalem’s Bukharian Quarter, the Israeli Bukharian news site Bucharim.com reported. Bucharim.com identifies Rabbi Zevadia Cohen as head of the Bukharian community’s rabbinical court as well as chief rabbi and chief dayan of Tel Aviv-Yafo and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council.

A home built on emunah

Kikar recounted that although the family lived in a rented home in Jerusalem’s Beit Yisrael neighborhood, she turned down a larger government-approved apartment in a new neighborhood so her children would grow up in a neighborhood devoted to Torah. When someone in the family fell ill, she went first to the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri for a blessing.

The funeral left at noon Friday from the Sephardic funeral home on Har HaMenuchot. Babli reported that Israel’s chief rabbis, Rabbi David Yosef and Rabbi Kalman Ber, and Rishon LeZion Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar attended.

In his eulogy, Rabbi Zevadia Cohen recalled that she asked him every day to play the Selichot for her. “This week we read, ‘In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth,’” he said. “With you, the heavens always came before the earth: spiritual matters first.” Rabbi Zamir Cohen spoke of the patience with which she raised four young sons in a row, Babli reported.

The family sat shiva at 8 Kfar HaShiloach Street in Beit Yisrael, according to Kikar.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by Kikar HaShabbat, Babli and Bucharim.com.

Sources: Kikar HaShabbat; Babli; Bucharim.com.