Devorah Epelgrad Cohn Timeline
Slonim, Poland: 1916-1933
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Epelgrad Family – Toibe and Yaakov and their children. (All images used with permission from Cohn Family unless otherwise noted). Devorah was born on November 21, 1916, in Slonim, Poland (modern day Belarus). Her mother Toibe ran a small shop out of the home selling, among other items, homemade ice cream.
Yaakov Zundel Epelgrad (1877- 1932) Devorah’s father was a respected Rabbi who served as the bochein (examiner) as well as fundraiser for the Slonimer Yeshiva. He regularly travelled to America to raise money for the Yeshiva and died of pneumonia during one of his trips to New York, in 1932, when Devorah was fifteen.
Toibe and and her son Shamson
Sledding on the frozen Shchara River, 1929 – Devorah’s house is just out of the frame, left of the leftmost house in the picture.
At the Gymnasium (secular high school) in Slonim, 1928/29. Devorah got into arguments with the teachers at the Gymnasium and complained to her parents that the school wasn’t religious enough. With the support of her parents and, on the advice of the Slonimer Rebbe, Rev Avromchik Weinberg, she left for the Bais Yaakov Teacher’s Seminary in Krakow in 1933.
Devorah (far left) in Slonim on October 18, 1932. The other young women in the photograph are identified on the back as Rivka Goldfarb, Eva Zyronski, Chana Kwiat. Chana may have been a cousin, since Devorah’s mother’s maiden name was Kwiat.
Krakow, Poland: 1933-1934
Devorah (seated, fourth from the right) on a trip to the Zakopane Mountains with others from the seminary (dated August 23, 1934). Although they did not have a summer vacation in the usual sense, the Bais Yaakov students would take trips to the mountains where they could experience nature outside of Krakow.
Devorah (fourth from left, standing, white shirt with arms crossed) with Bais Yaakov students on a hike to Lake Morskie Oko in the Tatra Mountains, 1934
Bais Yaakov seminarians on the grassy strip between the seminary and the Vistula River, 1934. Devorah loved it at the Krakow teachers’ seminary; she described the buildings as luxurious and the food as wonderful. Recounting the moment she arrived at Bais Yaakov, she said, “I felt that at last I was fulfilling the dream that I had had for so long.”
Devorah’s graduation diploma from Bais Yaakov, signed by Yehuda Leib Orlean (Director), Sarah Schenirer (Faculty), and Asher Shapiro Hacohen (Pegagogical Committee), December 1934. Devorah described Orlean, who taught Jewish history: “His lectures were outstanding…. He was very frum with a long beard. He was very intelligent. He spoke the best Yiddish. He built his speeches so beautifully.” She described how Schenirer would dance with the students on holidays, and often recounted the story of how when her tuition payment came late one month, Schenirer still allowed her to attend Schenirer’s own classes.
Devorah (front row, third from right) with teachers and graduating class from the Bais Yaakov teachers seminary, 1934. The teachers listed on the back are: Mrs. Bella (Gross) Fastag, Miss Esther Goldshtof, Mrs. Chana (Grossfeld) Biegun, Miss Yehudis Bamberger, Rebbetzin Gitl Pass, and Leah (Szczaranska) Waszasz. Devorah Epelgrad Cohn wrote, on the bottom of the list of students and teachers, “I graduated Bais Yaakov 12/30/24”.
Devorah’s Polish Identity Card, issued in Slonim, 1934
Ruzhan, Poland: 1935
Devorah (back row, fourth from left) posing with students in Ruzhan in a Purim play titled “Cantonists”, 1935. Devorah spent her first year out of the seminary teaching at a school with thirty pupils in Ruzhan. In addition to teaching, she ran a Basya Shabbes program for young girls and led extracurriculars including putting on a play.
Devorah in Ruzhan, ca. 1935, age nineteen.
Lechowitz, Poland: 1936-1937
Devorah with kindergarten class dressed for Purim play in Lechowitz, 1936. Devorah taught the kindergarten and ran a Bnos chapter in Lechowitz.
Devorah with Lechowitz kindergarten students on Purim, 1936.
Devorah with Masha Goldberg, 1936.
Devorah with students in Lechowitz, 1936.
Devorah with her kindergarten students in Lechowitz, 1937.
Devorah (2nd row, seating at left) in Lechowitz. The back identifies the occasion as “before Weinstein’s departure to Cuba, 1937”.
Devorah, in a photo with a handwritten dedication to her brother and sister-in-law, Lechowitz 1937
Devorah (second row, fifth from left) with Bnos members in Lechowitz on the occasion of the departure of Serke Korelitz to the Land of Israel, 1937.
Devorah (second from left) in Lechowitz.
Devorah in Lechowitz (right).
Devorah (far left) in Lechowitz.
Slonim, Poland: 1937-1940
Devorah with her 4th grade class at Bais Yaakov in Slonim, 1938. Devorah was happy living and teaching in Slonim, where she was near her family and became good friends with the other teachers at Bais Yaakov.
Bais Yaakov of Slonim, 1938 (Devorah in 3rd row from front on far right). The back of the photo lists the school director, Neche Sidranska; another teacher who also graduated from the Krakow seminary, Basha Shlomowitz; and Sonia Jejrush, Polish teacher.
Devorah (3rd row from front, slightly right of center wearing black hat with two white spots on it) Bais Yaakov school picture in Slonim, 1938
Devorah (right) and Neche Sidranska Kierowniczka, the principal of the Bais Yaakov of Slonim, 1938.
Devorah (right) with Bais Yaakov of Slonim teachers Bashe Shlomowitz (second to left), Sonia Jejrush (left) and principal Neche Sidranska Kierownickza (second to right), 1938.
Devorah (left) with Bais Yaakov of Slonim principal Necha Sidranksa Kierownickza, Bashe Shlomowitz, and Sonia Jejrush (from right to left), dated “1937, 38, 39.”
Devorah with her 6th grade class in the Bais Yaakov of Slonim, 1939. Russia invaded in 1939, and Devorah decided to stay in Russian-controlled Slonim and continue teaching. By the end of 1939, the Russians announced a new school calendar that required Devorah to work on Shabbat, so she decided to leave Slonim.
Devorah (standing left) with colleagues in the “teachers’ room” in Bais Yaakov of Slonim, 1939. Devorah fled Slonim on New Year’s Day, 1940, a holiday, giving her an extra day before her absence was noticed. She left with two younger girls from Slonim and her nephew Shlomo (her sister Feigel’s sixteen-year-old son). They took a train to Lida and then walked over thirty kilometers to Vilna. At the border, they were caught by a guard, whom they bribed with a gold coin.
Vilna, Poland: 1940-1941
Devorah (fourth from right) in Vilna October 21, 1940. Among the young women listed on the back is Basha Shlomowitz, another seminarian who had also taught in the Bais Yaakov of Slonim. In 1940, Vilna was a neutral city – though it was soon annexed by the Soviet Union. Devorah earned money knitting sweaters, giving lessons in Hebrew and in reading Jewish texts, and leading youth groups. She was excited to be close to many luminaries of the Yeshiva world, as well as the women of that world, especially others who had studied at the Bais Yaakov teacher’s seminary.
Devorah (seated in middle in white shirt with grey stripes), dated Lag B’Omer 1940.
Devorah (front row, center), Vilna, 1940.
Devorah is listed in the American Joint Distribution Committee list of refugees in Vilna, 1940, indicating that she was registered with the Refugee Committee and the Kehilah. She is number 1240 on the list.
Marriage Registration of Moses and Devorah Cohn, Vilna, January 1941. Devorah met Moses Cohn while selling Bais Yaakov literature at a wedding. Moses was a student at the Mirrer Yeshiva, and he helped in the complex process of securing transit visas through Japan issued by the Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara and exit visas issued by the NKVD (the KGB). Most of the Yeshiva was able to escape with these visas.
Marriage Registration in Vilna 1941. In late 1940, Devorah received a letter from Moses: URGENT. COME TO VILNA. YESHIVA BEGINNING TO MOVE. Devorah returned to Vilna, and she and Moses were married in a civil ceremony on January 3, 1941, so that her name could be added to his exit papers. Though they were legally married, they did not consider themselves married because they had not yet had a Jewish wedding.
English translation of Marriage Registration in Vilna 1941
Devorah in Vilna.
Journey through Moscow and Vladivostok, Russia: 1941
Moses in Moscow, 1941. Devorah and Moses boarded the train to Moscow in March 1941. They took the Trans-Siberian Railroad on the two-week trip to Vladivostok, a city on the south-eastern coast of Russia, where they boarded a boat to Tsuruga, Japan.
Moses Cohn, war refugee identification document (with Dweira Epelgrad added upon their legal marriage) (front).
Moses Cohn, war refugee identification document (back).
Page from the list of recipients of transit visas from Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara, held by the Diplomatic Records Office of the Foreign Ministry, Tokyo. Moses Cohn (spelled here “Kohn”) is number 1072. Devorah travelled on his papers, as his legal spouse. Once in Japan, they were aided by the Japan Tourist Bureau and settled in Kobe. It was in Japan that they first felt that they could breathe a sigh of relief, that they were no longer in danger.
Kobe, Japan: 1941
Devorah in 1941 in Kobe, Japan. Devorah and Moses were aided by “JewCom,” a community of Ashkenazi families living in Kobe. Moses’s cousin, Martin Morton, who lived in Massachusetts, sponsored an application for Moses and Devorah to move to the United States. On June 14th, 1941, they sailed aboard the Kamakura Maru first to Honolulu, Hawaii, then to San Francisco. The ship landed on Shabbat, and following halakhah, they were allowed to remain on the ship until the conclusion of Shabbat.
Copy of page from the passenger manifest of the Kamakura Maru, which lists Moses Jesaias Cohn and Dweira (Devorah) Cohn in the third and fourth lines. The US Immigration stamp shows that shore leave was granted in Honolulu on June 22, 1941. The ship, which departed Yokohama, Japan, docked in San Francisco on Saturday June 28, 1941.
America: 1941-2013
Moses and Devorah in Boston, 1942. Devorah initially lived with her brother in New York, while Moses lived in Boston. They visited on weekends and wrote letters before finally marrying, in a Jewish ceremony, on November 6th, 1941. Devorah moved to Boston after they married.
Devorah and Moses’s ketubah (Jewish marriage certificate)
Devorah and her first born, Yaakov Cohn, born on December 26th, 1942. Devorah initially taught night classes for women seeking to learn Hebrew. Once her kids were all in school, in the late 1950s or early 1960s, she began working full-time teaching 3rd graders at Maimonides School, a co-ed modern Orthodox school in Boston, where she taught until 2000.
Devorah’s certificate of naturalization to the United States, 1950.
Photo of some of Devorah’s extended family at a Maimonides School dinner honoring her in 1983. The photo includes her four children, Yaakov (far right), Avivah (fifth from left), Reuven (far left), and Eliezer (ninth from left, in the back), with their spouses; her brother Shamshon Applegrad; three of her Applegrad nephews; and three of her grandchildren (including Naftali to the left of her in the photo). As she notes in the attached post-it, her husband Moses was in the hospital at the time for a heart operation. As a teacher, Devorah was known for creative and engaging assignments – like the students imagining they were Avraham or Sarah and being told to leave home for a faraway place – and she was both beloved and respected by generations of students.
Devorah with plaque for a Bais Yaakov classroom in Jerusalem dedicated to her work for the Boston Chapter of Nshei Agudath Israel. Throughout her life, Devorah was very involved in the Boston Jewish community, founding the Nshei Agudas Yisrael of Boston and raising money to build a mikveh.
Devorah Brayne Cohn’s gravestone. The inscription reads:
The learned woman
Devorah Brayne Cohn
Daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Zundel
And Mrs. Toibe Alte
Epelgrad
Born in Slonim
A student
of the Bais Yaakov Teachers’ Seminary
In Krakow
All of her endeavors were
In the spirit of her great teacher
Sarah Schenirer
And all her ways were in fear of God and in modesty;
Raised her family
And generations of students in Boston
Supported the sacred work of her husband
And tended to the needs of the community
Passed away on the eve of Sabbath Adar 13, 5773 (February 23, 2013, age 96)
May her soul be bound in the bond of life.