Rabbi Norman M. Cohen is the spiritual leader of Bet Shalom Congregation, located in Minnetonka, Minnesota.  Beginning with a handful of young and devoted families, Bet Shalom Congregation has grown from 30 families in 1981 to its present membership of over 830 families.  He has been the guiding force in the congregation's exceptional spiritual, physical, and familial growth since its beginning. 

Prior to his arrival in the Twin Cities, Rabbi Cohen served the oldest Jewish congregation west of the Alleghenies, Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati, in addition to teaching at HUC and other colleges in Cincinnati. He has continued to serve on college faculties in the Twin Cities area, including the College of St Catherine, Macalester College, the United Theological Seminary, and St Olaf College in Northfield.

Rabbi Cohen received his bachelor's degree cum laude from Holy Cross College in Worcester Massachusetts where he returns periodically as a consultant to the chaplain's office, working with the growing Jewish student body and faculty.  While an undergraduate, he also studied for six months in Jerusalem at the Hiatt Institute of Brandeis University, and has since led many congregational trips to Israel. He did his graduate work at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati where he earned his masters degree in 1975 and was ordained in 1977. In 2001 Rabbi Cohen was also awarded his Doctorate of Divinity from HUC.

Prior to serving his first congregation, Rabbi Cohen was president of the student body at Hebrew Union College and was the recipient of the Bertrand B. Kahn Award and the Stephen N. Levinson Memorial Prize for Significant Service to the Hebrew Union College and its Student Body. Rabbi Cohen also completed work in a therapist-training program at the University of Cincinnati. 

Rabbi Cohen is the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles and the book Jewish Bible Personages in the New Testament, published by the University Press of America. He has appeared as visiting scholar in residence in over two dozen cities throughout the country.  In November, 1988, he was invited to occupy the Visiting Alumni Chair in Practical Rabbinics at his alma mater, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  In his Sabbatical time, he studies the Book of Ruth and is working on a book Stereotypes and Misconceptions that Christians and Jews Hold About Each Other.

In addition to congregational and academic duties, Rabbi Cohen is active in local civic and Jewish community affairs and plays an active role in Jewish Christian relations. He serves as chaplain for the Minnetonka and Hopkins Police Departments, has been a member of the Hopkins Crime Prevention Fund Board, and is currently on the State Board of the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police. Rabbi Cohen has been on the Religious Advisory Council of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities, executive board member of Minneapolis Jewish Federation and has served as an honorary advisor to the Board of Minneapolis Jewish Family and Children’s Service. He is past president of the Midwest Association of Reform Rabbis, the Minnesota Rabbinical Association and is active in numerous organizations, locally and nationally, most significantly the Joint Commission of the Rabbinic Mentoring Institute, the National Committee on Rabbinic Congregational Relations and as vice chair of the Reform movement’s Joint Commission on Synagogue Management.

Rabbi Cohen is married to the former Andrea Winnick of St. Paul and is the stepfather of Thomas Jacob Rubin. 

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Doctor, Doctor, Mister D.D.

What's a Nice Jewish Boy Doing at Holy Cross?

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