About Michael and the Award

The annual Michael H. K. Cohen Award and Travel Fellowship is given to two Moishe House residents and/or Moishe House Without Walls hosts. The award recipients exhibit a passion for adventure and travel with warmth, kindness, curiosity, intelligence, and a love of Judaism—the special qualities that Michael brought to this world during his 28 years.

The award’s namesake, Michael H.K. Cohen, was a leader of his Jewish community, serving as Head Jewish Mentor for the Claremont Colleges and Treasurer of Claremont College Hillel. After graduation, Michael traveled through Europe before settling in Beijing, China, where he built close connections with Chinese and expat friends, and found a home-away-from-home in the Beijing Moishe House and the Kehillat Beijing Congregation. Combining a natural curiosity about people and places with a warmth and openness that made others feel their best, Michael liked nothing more than traveling, and he took every opportunity to explore the most remote regions of Asia, seeing the sights and meeting new people. 

When he returned to Boston in late 2016, not having lived there for the past eight years, he connected with the Cambridge Moishe House and began to build a new community for himself. 

His premature death in 2018, at the age of 28, shocked and saddened everyone who knew him.

This award honors the spirit Michael brought to everything he did and his legacy of caring deeply for others, building bridges to new cultures, appreciating our Jewish heritage and bringing happiness to everyone around him.