Exhibition extended with 5 weeks.
till april 15th.
Leonard Cohen
"I am a priest of God" -- Parasites of Heaven; Selected Poems 1956-1968
Priestly blessing by Leonard Cohen:
Mein Name ist Cohen
Name
The name was said just once
in the United States of America
and then forgotten for generations.
My daughter had to coax it loose from cousins
who weren’t sure, but nearly sure.
They knew the year, the crossing, the language,
but the name – Kugen, Krugen, Kruger?
Ellis Island clerks were slipshod with names
Jewish? Give him Cohen.
As for me, I didn’t need to know my grandpa’s name,
playing with him on the floor in a pool of sun
filtered through grimy windows
Sundays, in a Newark apartment block.
Linda Chase (1941-2011) , ‘Name’
Star Trek
Leonard Nimoy talks about the link between Vulcans and Cohens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu1qa8N2ID0&NR=1
Brian Cohen
Life of Brian: Brian Cohen is not the Messiah. 'He's a very naughty boy.'
Athenaeum
The book is also available at the Athenaeum bookshop. Spui, Amsterdam.
Cover
Clairy Polak
Tv-anchor Clairy Polak has opened the exhibition in the Jewish Historical Museum. A quote from an interview with her in Vrij Nederland by Coen Verbraak: 'To belong to something, we did not have that at home. We did not belong to anything. "Remember that you do not belong to a group", my parents said, "you choose one every time". But of course I feel connected to Judaism. First of all because of my name. Before I was on television on a regular basis, people would incidentally call me "ms. Cohen" by accident.'
Arnon Grunberg
The New York based writer Arnon Grunberg, known for the Big Jiddish Novel 'The Jewish Messiah', wrote the preface for the book My name is Cohen.
The opening sentences:
Identity is what others think I am; I don’t define myself, I am defined. At best, I can modify other people’s definitions. I can try disguising myself, pretend to be someone else, but even that is just another way of trying to evade other people’s definitions.