My grandfather, Rav Chaim Cohn, z”l, was the Rav in the Lessinstrasse shul in Berlin, from 1919 until 1939. This shul attracted a range of daveners: important rabbanim, such as Rav Ahron Neuwirth, the father of the author of Shemiras Shabbos k’Hilchasa; Rav Shlomo Wolbe, a father of modern mussar; as well as less important people, such as Albert Einstein and other famous intellectuals. Yes, before you ask, Albert Einstein did go to shul – maybe not every Shabbos but not only on Yom Kippur. Interestingly, he went to an Orthodox shul, and that was not because he could not find a Reform temple; there were plenty of those in Berlin. The fact is, davka, that this Orthodox shul with 250 seats was nicknamed intelligenztempel, the shul of the intellectuals in pre-WWII Berlin. Interestingly, Opa was actually mekarev Rav Wolbe as a young boy, which Rav Wolbe often acknowledged during his lifetime.

In November 1939, on Kristallnacht, the shul was burned down. A few weeks later, my grandparents with seven children and one mother-in-law left for Switzerland. They were fortunate; my grandfather was born in Switzerland and had Swiss citizenship. They ended up in England, where my grandfather never held another rabbinic position. I don’t think he ever learned English.