Description:Image:The Birmingham Post, Rev. Cohen Speech (an extract) 1933.
Rev Abraham Cohen gave many memorable and powerful speeches on behalf of the Jewish community. His arguments were remarkable not just for their passionate defiance of Hitler's Nazi regime, but also for their critique of the roots of prejudice, which he attacked as the universal enemy of the 'oneness of the human family'.
The setting on this occasion, Carr's Lane Church, was highly symbolic. It was the first time that a Jewish preacher had been allowed to talk at the Christian pulpit. The crisis in Germany had re-opened the dialogue between Jewish and Christian faiths to establish a socially progressive message of mutual religious support.
Meanwhile, the significance of Cohen's appearence at Carr's Lane is further heightened when we remember that the same church was at the forefront of Birmingham's nineteenth century campaigns against slavery, when J.A. James, a close friend of Joseph Sturge, was minister of Carr's Lane.