Geulah Cohen | |
---|---|
Date of birth | 25 December 1925 |
Place of birth | Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine |
Knessets | 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
Faction represented in Knesset | |
1974–1979 | Likud |
1979–1992 | Tehiya |
Geulah Cohen (Hebrew: גאולה כהן, born 25 December 1925) is a former Israeli politician and activist who founded the Tehiya party. She won the Israel Prize in 2003.
Geulah Cohen was born in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era. She studied at the Levinsky Teachers Seminary, and earned a master's degree in Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Literature and Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1942 she joined the Irgun, and moved to Lehi the following year. A radio announcer for the group, she was arrested by the British authorities in 1946. She was imprisoned in Bethlehem, but escaped from jail in 1947. She was also editor of the Lehi newspaper Youth Front. After Israeli independence in 1948, she contributed to Sulam, a monthly magazine published by former Lehi leader Israel Eldad.
Cohen married former Lehi comrade Emanuel Hanegbi. From 1961 to 1973, she wrote for the Israeli newspaper Maariv and served on its editorial board. While working as a journalist, she came to New York to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Schneerson encouraged her to get involved with Israeli youth.
In 1972 Cohen joined Menachem Begin's Herut party, then part of the Gahal alliance, and was elected to the Knesset the following year, by which time Gahal had become Likud. She was re-elected in 1977.