Yaacov Ben Uzi HaCohen, the High Priest of the Samaritan community was buried on Mt. Gerizim in Nablus Monday. He died at the age of 87. Almost the entire Samaritan community of 528 attended the funeral along with HaCohen’s many Jewish and Arab friends.
He served as High Priest since 1984. His fluency in Arabic, English and Hebrew had made him the principal spokesman for the community before becoming High Priest. He was the author of several books and supported himself as a palm reader.
During the 1930’s HaCohen served as Nablus correspondent for a number of Jewish newspapers and was the main source of information about that Arab center in pre-war Palestine.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
