Interview with Samy Cohn

01.10.1997

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Samy Cohn Ph.D. Honoris Causa of the Weizmann Institute

Samy Cohn Ph.D. Honoris Causa of the Weizmann Institute

 

Q: Your involvement with the Institute has been very intense. Is there a story behind it?

Samy Cohn
: I suppose in a way there is. When I was a child in the Romanian village of Stefanesti, my mother owned the local pension. At the end of the day the intellectuals of the village met at our place to have drinks and discuss politics, literature and scientific subjects. I was too young to understand some of the issues being discussed. But they influenced me enough to realize very early in life that only through education could I lift myself to their levels and achieve anything of significance. I resolved to be a good student and to prepare myself for a lengthy period of learning. The direction of my studies could normally have carried me into law, but fate had it otherwise.

Q: What happened?

Samy Cohn
: The global upheaval of the 1930s and 1940s kept me from university. Instead of pursuing my own higher education, I was swept up in a tide that carried me from Romania to Israel and into the struggle for the creation of the State. But even though those early years in Palestine were full of hard work and long hours, I always found time for reading and enlarging my knowledge. Without this knowledge I would never have enjoyed the measure of success that I have experienced. This is why I hold education so dear.

Q: It has been said that your life reads like an adventure story. Could you elaborate a little for our readers?

Samy Cohn
: It hasn't been dull. When I arrived in what was then Palestine in 1934, I started out as a carpenter's assistant. But shortly after, I got a job with the Romanian state shipping line. By the time World War II broke out and Romanian ships stopped calling at Palestinian ports, I had gained enough experience to strike out on my own. I founded a company for importing goods from Turkey. In 1942, I volunteered for service with the Solel Boneh Construction Company in the Persian Gulf. When I returned to Tel Aviv, I became director of an export arm of the Foreign Trade Institute of the Manufacturers Association, and in that capacity I traveled even more, especially to Greece and Turkey. In 1950 I moved to London, where I dealt with international trade, and in 1955 to Brazil, where I've been ever since. The company I established deals in mining, hotels, fresh fruit export, cattle-raising and international finance.

Q: And you participated in Israel's War of Independence, didn't you?

Samy Cohn
: Yes, and in organizing the illegal immigration of war refugees in the days before the State of Israel was declared.

On receiving an honorary Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in 1994, Samy Cohn concluded his address with these moving words
: "I have lived on three continents, and have been exposed to cultures all over the world. I have met thousands of people from paupers to presidents, and I have been able to help some of them. But I am especially proud to have been able to help this great institution because it serves so noble a purpose in such an excellent manner."

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