Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, made aliya in 1982. He is married and father of five children, living in Nof Ayalon.
Dr. Dov HaCohen's research focuses on the Spanish-Jews (Ladino speakers), on the study of their literary work and their printing crop, on the study of their history, culture and language. His research is divided into three main branches: the world of the Ladino book, the history of the communities and personalities in the Spanish-Jewish diaspora, and Spanish-Jewish paleography His work is primarily based on many archival materials, paying attention to their historical, social and cultural context. He located in libraries and collections in Israel and around the world, many previously unknown Ladino patterns, including ancient Ladino patterns that he uncovered, among the writings that emerged from the Cairo Genizet.
His book "The Collection of Ladino Books 1490-1960: An Annotated Research Bibliography" (Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem 2021), which has almost four thousand items, is the most comprehensive bibliography in the field of Ladino literature. Besides his book, he wrote a series of articles dealing with the "bookcase" in Ladino. His research on the world of books in Ladino deals with a wide variety of literary genres written in this language, such as Bible translations, Sage literature, Rabbinic literature, Halacha literature, moral literature, sermons, and poetry on the one hand, and theater, journalism, short-lived publications (Ephemera) And even ego-documentary literature (such as memoirs), on the other hand.
His research in the field of the history of the communities and personalities in the Spanish-Jewish diaspora deals with the history of the Spanish-Jewish speaking communities with an emphasis on the history of the families and personalities who worked in them, social, cultural and historical phenomena and processes. One of the outstanding features of his articles in these fields is the uncovering of compositions, works and unknown texts in the Spanish-Jewish language and the revealing of the identity of authors and works in Ladino.
Specialties
-
The history of the Ladino book
-
The Ladino press throughout the ages
-
The history of Sephardic Jewry and the exiles in the Diaspora
-
Ladino literature: Written genres
-
Halachic literature in Ladino
-
Sephardic-Jewish genealogy
-
Hebrew paleography
-
The Hebrew book and its offshoots