Justice Haim H. Cohn, of the Israel Supreme Court, was married here yesterday to a woman who had been divorced from her first husband, then married a second man, who died. Because Justice Cohn is a “cohen, ” a member of the Jewish priestly tribe, his marriage raised the question as to whether his union is valid under the rules of the Israeli rabbinate, which forbids a “cohen” to marry a divorced woman.
The ceremony was conducted in a hotel suite here by Rabbi Edward Sandrow, president of the New York Board of Rabbis and spiritual leader of Temple Beth El, a Conservative congregation in Cedarhurst, L. I. He said after the ceremony that the validity of Justice Cohn’s marriage under the rules of the Israeli rabbinate, which is Orthodox, is a matter of interpretation. “I consulted a number of my Orthodox colleagues, ” he said, “and it was agreed that the bride was a widow, and not a divorcee. ” Justice Cohn’s bride is the former Michal Smoira, an Israeli music critic.
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