Arthur Kohn writes:
The first chief rabbi of the Jewish community of the Swiss city of Basel was my grandfather, Arthur Cohn, after whom I was named and whom I know only through hearsay and stories told by my father.
For 40 years, my grandfather held the office of chief rabbi of Basel, a city to which he had come at the age of 23.
The First Zionist Congress took place in Basel in 1897. At this time, there was only a small Jewish community in Basel, the majority of whose members originated from Alsace. The congress literally burst into the lives to this quiet Jewish community.
The first session of the congress took place on Sunday morning, Aug. 29. This attitude led organizers to abandon their first choice of Munich as the congress’s center. Political Zionism — something the vast majority of Jews proclaim today — was a deeply divisive issue then, with many religious Jews fiercely opposed. My grandfather’s attitude, deeply traditional yet open- minded, tipped the balance in favor of Basel.
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Herzl wrote to my grandfather: “We shall never forget your truly sincere and honest behaviour and your willingness to hold the Zionist Congress in Basel. During one such conversation, my grandfather said: “If you knew the Zionists in Switzerland and their particular religious views, you would find it hard to endorse the Zionist cause.” With a smile, his Eastern European Jewish colleague replied: “You should first see my Zionists.”
Because of his support of the Zionist cause my grandfather encountered misunderstanding and anger from most of his rabbinical colleagues. Rabbi Breuer told my grandfather: “You will see, dear Rabbi Cohn, in a few more months, no more mention will be made of Zionism.” My father Marcus Cohn was a renowned lawyer in Basel. For my father, the Zionist congresses represented his first encounters with Jewish scholars, and they left a deep, lasting impression on him. My father was just 7 years old and was allowed to accompany home at night one of the Easter European Jewish rabbis who was staying in the most modest hotel in Basel. Bashfully, my father strode side-by-side with the rabbi who turned to him and asked what he was presently learning pertaining to Judaism. Then to my father’s surprise the rabbi began to quote Beitza by heart, until he came to the actual point my father had reached in his learning. Deeply astounded and awestruck at such intense Jewish knowledge, my father then proceeded home, overwhelmed by the experience.