Tributes from leaders in Pittsburgh communal, welfare, legal and judicial circles are pouring in for Judge Josiah Cohen, the oldest jurist in Pennsylvania, who died yesterday in his 90th year. Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon from Temple Rodef Shalom of which Judge Cohen was the president for the past twenty years. He was the first Jewish lawyer and first Jewish judge in Alleghany Country.
Mayor Charles H. Kline, who served with Judge Cohen before being elected to the chief office of the city, said: “I was deeply shocked to learn of the death of my dear friend, Judge Josiah Cohen. While on the bench it was my good fortune to come in closer contact than before, and it was then that I learned of his many beautiful and manly characteristics. He will be missed not only by Jewry, for whom he labored so well, but by the Gentile as well, for among both he had thousands of friends. His place in society will be difficult to fill.”
Robert S. Frazier, justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, said: “I knew him intimately previously to his becoming a member of the bench and since that time have been closely connected in matters pertaining to the court. He possessed a good legal mind and in all respects was an able, conscientious and diligent judicial officer.”
Herman Passamaneck, executive director of the Pittsburgh Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association, an institution with which Judge Cohen was actively identified, said: “Not only Pittsburgh but all America will feel the loss of Judge Cohen. He was a leader in everything Jewish. His efforts for the “Y” are unparalleled. He was an inspiration to all of us at all times.”
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