Professor Emeritus Dr. Michael Sincoff Kogan

Professor Michael S. Kogan passed away on Saturday, April 6, 2024.

Born in New York City on September 30, 1942, Dr. Kogan lived part of the year in Charleston in 1990. After his retirement in 2014, he lived full-time in the Holy City. Dr. Kogan had deep roots in Charleston. His direct ancestors came to this city in 1830. Co-lateral forebears had lived in Charleston for a century before that.

Dr. Kogan graduated from the Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York, and received his B.A. in Philosophy and his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Syracuse University. He pursued post-graduate studies at the Columbia University Graduate Faculty of Philosophy and at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. 

Dr. Kogan taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Montclair State University in New Jersey for forty-one years, serving as Chairman of the department for twenty-four years. His areas of specialization were Jewish and Christian theology and dialogue, Existentialism, and Old and New Testaments. At his retirement he was named “Professor Emeritus.” He authored a book on Jewish-Christian theological encounter titled, ”Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity,” published by Oxford University Press. He also published many essays, book chapters, introductions, and scholarly articles in leading journals of religious thought.

Throughout his career Dr. Kogan taught adult courses in Bible and theology at churches and synagogues. He continued to do this in Charleston following his retirement, teaching at St. Johannes Lutheran and St. Stephen’s Episcopal churches, K.K. Beth Elohim and Synagogue Emanu-El. He preached guest sermons in these and other Charleston houses of worship. He taught a variety of courses in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Charleston.

Dr. Kogan was a long-time member of the Board of the Spoleto Festival,U.S.A. He had served on the Board of the College of Charleston's Yashick/Arnold Jewish Studies Program, and was a “Pillar” of the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina. He was a "Life Member" of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a member of Charleston’s Fort Sumter Camp, and a former Commander and Adjutant of New York’s General Archibald Gracie Camp 983, SCV. He was a member of the Palmetto Guards, the Charleston Library Society, the South Carolina Historical Society, the Preservation Society of Charleston, the Civil War Trust, the South Carolina Battlefield Preservation Trust, the Christian-Jewish Council and the Harbor Club. 

Dr. Kogan was for forty years a member of Congregation Shomri Emunah in Montclair, New Jersey. He founded the congregation’s Institute of Adult Jewish Studies and served two terms as president of the Synagogue.  At his death, Dr. Kogan was a congregant of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City, and of K.K. Beth Elohim, Synagogue Emanu-El, and Congregation B’rith Sholom-Beth Israel in Charleston. His great, great, great grandfather, Rabbi Hirsch Levin, was the founding rabbi of Congregation B’rith Sholom in 1852. The library of the Jewish Studies Center at the College of Charleston is named in Rabbi Levin’s honor. The rabbi’s son-in-law, Dr. Kogan’s great, great grandfather, Harris Levin, and several other forbearers served in the army of the Confederate States.

Funeral services will be held in Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, 90 Hasell Street on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 2:00 PM. Burial will be in the congregation’s historic Cemetery located at 189 Coming Street. In lieu of flowers, contributions should be made to the Coming Street Cemetery Restoration Fund, 90 Hasell Street, Charleston, S.C. 29401 or directly through the KKBE website: <https://www.kkbe.org/donate1.html&gt;. 

Arrangements by J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., Downtown Chapel.