Rabbi Reuven Zvi Cohn was born in Boston during the vote to partition Palestine in November 1947 and grew up in the Jewish neighborhoods of Boston. Upon graduating from Maimonides school in 1965, he pursued higher Jewish study at Yeshiva University, where he earned a BA and Rabbinic Ordination, and in Israel, at Yeshivat Kerem b'Yavneh, where he studied shortly after the six-day war, and in the PhD program at Harvard University. It was during his graduate studies that he began teaching part-time at Maimonides School and giving adult education classes for women at the Bostoner Rebbe.

In the late 1970s, Reuven left the PhD program to pursue a JD at Yale Law School. He returned with his family to the Boston area, and began a career as a lawyer. He worked at a law firm, as a lawyer for Brigham and Women's Hospital, and for software firms. During his years as a lawyer, Reuven taught sessions on Jewish themed topics in professional settings, including early morning learning for professionals in downtown Boston. He also regularly taught at his synagogue, Congregation Shaarei Tefillah, in Newton, and during this time began teaching in the Hebrew College Meah program and at Maayan, where he was a founding teacher. In 2002, realizing that his true passion was teaching, Reuven switched careers, and for the last fifteen years of his life taught again in Maimonides School. He first taught Talmud, but soon became the established teacher in Jewish History. He created an engaging and original sourcebook and inspired many young students. In addition to teaching at Maimonides, he continued to teach adult students through Maayan, Meah, Congregations and communities across the Boston area, and self-organized study groups.

Reuven passed away unexpectedly on the 11th of Tishrei, 5778, after suffering a heart attack during the Yom Kippur afternoon services. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, his son and daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, and six granddaughters. May his memory be a blessing.

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