How did the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Air Force get to from his hometown of Seattle?

During a shiva visit several months ago to the family of Rabbi Dov Cohen, of blessed memory, we heard the fascinating answer to this question.

Dov’s older brother had been sent by his parents from Seattle to a yeshiva in New York. When he returned home after a while he was reluctant to go back to yeshiva because he longed to be with his family. When Dov became Bar Mitzvah his saintly mother was determined to bring him to a yeshiva from which it would be much more difficult to come home. She took him to Eretz and enrolled him in the famous yeshiva in Hebron. No one his age from outside of the city was ever admitted to the yeshiva but the mother’s determination succeeded in having him accepted.

He miraculously survived the Arab massacre in 1929, went on to become a distinguished Torah scholar and served for many years as Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Air Force.

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