Alexander Kogan

Born in Wolkowisk

Alexander was born on 22 September 1951 in Wolkowisk, a village in Belarus between Grodno and Bialystok, his parents' birthplaces. The town was Soviet then. Before the war it was Polish.

He was the youngest of three brothers. His older brothers Zeev and Nachum are still alive. Zeev is ten years older than Alex, Nachum five.

The family did not always carry the name Kogan. During or shortly after World War II, Alex's father was arrested for stealing half a sack of flour. He escaped from prison and took the papers of a dead man. The dead man's surname was Kogan.

Later he forged the papers of his Russian wife Rachel. Russian Jews could not leave the country in those years, but Polish Jews could. On paper Rachel became Polish. That way the family could leave the country together.

Poland, Genoa, Israel

In 1957 the Soviet authorities allowed Polish Jews to return from the USSR to Poland. The family moved from Belarus to Poland. Three months later they sailed from Genoa to Israel.

In Israel they were first sent to the agricultural settlement Zahal, today Liman. A year later Alex's mother got a job as a nurse in Akko, and the family moved to Naharia. Alex went through eight years of primary school there.

School and army

From 1965 to 1969 Alex attended the agricultural high school Kfar Hayarok, "the green village", near Tel Aviv. He graduated in 1969.

In September 1969 he was drafted. He served three years as a combat medic in a pioneer unit.

War on the first day of university

In 1973 Alex was admitted to the agricultural faculty at the Technion in Haifa. A few weeks into the term, the Yom Kippur War broke out. He was sent to the Syrian front, where the fighting lasted longest. He could only resume his studies six months later.

He served as a medic. As far as he knew he was the only soldier in the Israeli army with his own tank. An old Sherman, with the turret cut off. In its place was a welded steel box, two field beds inside. While the fighting went on outside, he treated the wounded in there.

Diploma and Zurich

In 1978 Alex graduated as a Dipl.-Ing. in water and agricultural sciences. He spent three months as an intern at ETH Zurich. While in Switzerland he took a side trip to Alsace and saw Germany for the first time, the country his future wife came from.

Ute, water, Lebanon, Daniel

In 1979 Alex met Ute Reinsch. Through 1985 he was head of the water authority in Akko.

In 1982 he was called up again, this time for the Lebanon War. In 1983 Alex and Ute married on Cyprus. On 22 April 1984 Daniel was born in Naharia.

To Germany

In August 1985 Alex emigrated with Ute and Daniel to Germany. They settled in Paderborn. His engineering diploma counted for nothing here. In November he started training as an IT systems consultant for business and engineering. From spring 1987 he worked in the IT industry.

On 22 November 1990 David was born in Paderborn.

A second family

Alex and Ute separated in 2001. In 2004 he married Wei Wang. Three children followed: Eli on 11 December 2004, Lily on 10 July 2006, Aviva on 27 April 2010.

Alex and Wei separated on 1 November 2015. On 26 September 2020 his sixth child Rachel was born in the Philippines.

Cantor and chairman

As soon as Alex had settled in Paderborn he reached out to the Jewish community. From 1985 he was an official member. After the cantor died in the early nineties, Alex took over those duties as well and became the community's prayer leader.

In November 2000 he was elected first chairman of the Jüdische Kultusgemeinde Paderborn. His first term ran until 2004. From 2015 to 2022 he served again. He made sure the community was filled with life.

Over the years he spoke to visiting groups, showed them the synagogue and the Torah scroll that had burned in the 1938 pogrom. For the 80th anniversary of the November Pogrom he built the website 80jahrepogrom.jgpb.de.

"The core of Judaism is love. The word love gets passed on to the children at the family table at home." Lokalzeit OWL, 2019

Grün Weiß Paderborn

Alex started playing table tennis during his student days in Israel. Once he lived in Paderborn he joined the local club Grün Weiß Paderborn. Over the years he won many trophies.

Esterka's memoir

Alex published the memoirs of his aunt Esterka Margolis. Esterka, his mother's sister, had written down her memories of the Shoah forty years after the end of the war. Alex and a friend from the Academy brought the book out. First edition 2018.

Asia

In his final years Alex went back and forth between Germany and Southeast Asia. He loved life in Asia.

In the Philippines he met his last partner, Rachel's mother. He wanted to spend the rest of his life there. Then Covid hit and he could no longer fly out. Health problems followed.

He never met his daughter Rachel in person.

Fourth of May

Alexander Kogan died on 4 May 2026 at the age of 74.

Funeral

The funeral took place on 7 May 2026 in Paderborn.

In the chapel the rabbi sang the prayers. Then Daniel, Eli, Lily and I each said something about our father. The coffin was carried to the grave. On the way it was set down three times. At the graveside Daniel, Eli and I said the Kaddish with the rabbi's help.