{"id":33562,"date":"2025-06-24T12:52:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T12:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/?page_id=33562"},"modified":"2025-06-24T12:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T12:56:41","slug":"jonathan-cohen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/jonathan-cohen\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Cohen"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Remembering Stephanie \u2013 By Jonathan Cohen<\/strong><\/h2>
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As we navigate the long journey called life, a rare gem such as Stephanie Cohen\u00a0 is precisely the kind of selfless and graceful person we hope we’ll at some stage be fortunate enough to encounter, even if its usually more in hope than expectation. And probably just like so many others who were lucky enough to have had Stephanie touch their lives, I find the thought that such a beautiful gifted soul is no longer here with us unbearably sad.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

In the year since her untimely passing after facing her diagnosis with typical Stephanie like courage and dignity, I have dwelt often not only on her very significant contribution to my wellbeing during my many years spent living in Israel, but indeed on what a genuine twist of fate it was that our paths even crossed in the first place.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

My instructions upon accepting yet another temporary office assignment from the agency (back in the day, I never seemed able to hold down a permanent position), were to report to a woman also called Cohen and apparently also from Essex. Someone else had cancelled and there I was within the hour, sipping tea in Steph’s office, where a first glance at the numerous yet impeccably tidy assortment of papers on her desk was an early indication of just how many important roles she was simultaneously\u00a0 juggling. Invoices, marketing, credit control, exhibitions, the volunteering, insurance and so on.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

It won’t come as news to anyone what a tremendous asset Steph was to the office. Still, both during my time as a temp, later on as a permanent employee, and long, long after that, she was the most amazing mentor to me, both in a professional and personal capacity. From the endless patience and immense dedication, she showed when training me in preparing the monthly invoices (a role which occupied me full time yet was somehow only one of the many tasks she found time for), to intervening when my complex health issues got me into bother both in the office or out of hours, Steph was a constant. Someone who was always and without exception, there advocating for me. Always able to resolve any issue with an almost diplomatic level of skill. Looking back now, it seems even more miraculous that she effortlessly accomplished so much during her working day, given that after my arrival, so much of her time was spent clearing up the latest chaos and mayhem I’d become entangled in.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Yet she never got angry, her patience was never exhausted, and in that Stephanie way she always found the right words to calm me and, more importantly, to placate others at GKH who were no doubt pulling their hair out at the latest erratic conduct of the British guy in accounts!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

There was though the one time where I went home feeling sure I’d crossed a red line and pushed everyone too far. Looking back now I refer to it as my aggressive vegetarian phase, where not content with keeping meat off of my plate, I had an unhealthy obsession with preaching to those who wanted to listen, and all too often those who didn’t, what they themselves should be eating. So on this occasion, no doubt after watching one too many late-night video clips of how animals met their end and entered the food chain, I entered the office in full activist mode. I set my sights on the information boards located in the dining areas of all 3 floors, tore down all the lunch menus I could find, and proceeded to feed them all (no pun intended) into the shredder. All menus for the 150 plus members of staff gone, just like that.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

As I was afterwards anxiously calculating how many monthly client invoices and bad debts I would need to quickly close in order to save my skin, Steph remained unflustered and explained to those who needed to know that Jonathan cared passionately about animals and had got a little carried away. And despite no one that day having a menu from which to order any lunch, in her unique way, Steph diffused the situation, made others see the funny side, and saved my skin.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

And that’s what I’ll always remember about Steph. No matter the hour, nor the challenging nature of many complex situations I found myself in, her steadfast loyalty never wavered, and she and Ami, who by now she’d also managed to recruit, were never far away, always available to support, advise and assist and to make a difference.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

I frequently reminisce about what she would call “our little chats” in her office, as whether she be training me, going through open invoices or setting other work goals, I always knew that at some stage the conversation would drift as it always did, to all things UK where we both grew up. I would listen in fascination as she described both London and Southend and what Jewish life was like in both places in the post-war period. When going back in time to describe something, she could paint a picture with equal skill as when she literally picked up her brush and indulged in one of her many cherished hobbies.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

It could only happen in Israel that such a twist of fate, in this case the previous office temp cancelling, could result in me stumbling across an individual of such consequence in my life.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

You are missed deeply Steph. Your memory very much lives on.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

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Dorit<\/strong><\/h6><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remembering Stephanie \u2013 By Jonathan Cohen \u00a0 As we navigate the long journey called life, a rare gem such as Stephanie Cohen\u00a0 is precisely the kind of selfless and graceful person we hope we’ll at some stage be fortunate enough to encounter, even if its usually more in hope than expectation. And probably just like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33562","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33566,"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33562\/revisions\/33566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephaniecohen.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}