Lenore Cohen, a longtime Temple Emanuel teacher, director of education and Jewish community leader whose deep commitment to Jewish learning helped shape generations of students in the Washington area, died June 13. She was 95.

Cohen was remembered by family, friends and colleagues as organized, no-nonsense, caring and quietly influential. At Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Maryland, she taught religious school, worked with high school-age students and later served as director of education. She was also active in Hadassah, Sisterhood, chavurah groups and Jewish education circles across the Washington region.

Rabbi Warren Stone, rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanuel, said Cohen and her husband, Dr. George Cohen, were part of the congregation’s active core.

“They were kind of an understated power couple, but in a kind Old World way,” Stone said.

George Cohen was a pediatrician and co-founder of MobileMed, a Montgomery County nonprofit health clinic serving low-income and uninsured residents. Lenore Cohen was a teacher and former principal whose students responded to her knowledge, discipline and warmth.

“She had a passion for her Judaism and a wonderful way of teaching,” Stone said. “She was quite successful in reaching students of all ages, particularly with our oldest students.”

Joel Kapenstein, a former student, wrote: “I remember her as a strict principal, a little scary, but always fair and you knew she cared about each kid.”

Cohen’s career at Temple Emanuel began when her own children were young. In an autobiographical piece, she wrote that when her oldest of four children began Sunday school at Temple Emanuel, Rabbi Leon Adler recruited her to teach the younger children. She was promoted to eighth grade where she taught for many years.

She later became director of education, overseeing religious school, a weekday nursery school, youth groups, midweek Hebrew classes and adult education. The work followed her home through meetings and phone calls.

Her children understood that Temple Emanuel was not simply a job for their mother.

“It was a place and an organization to which she was dedicated,” said her daughter Esther Cohen.

Her son Dan Cohen said his mother was deeply invested in the synagogue’s students, families and teachers. She spoke of her students with pride. His friends described her in class as clear, interesting, no-nonsense and fair. Lenore Cohen enjoyed working with adolescents, Dan Cohen said, and knew how to get them to react and think.

As director of education, she was intelligent, organized and able to recognize good teaching. She knew students and families well. When someone had a problem, she gave extra time and space to help.

Stone said Cohen’s philosophy reflected Temple Emanuel’s broader values.

“She was very committed to hands-on learning and activity with a commitment to social justice in its broadest sense,” he said.

Her idealism was grounded in practicality, Stone said.

“She had a type of idealism along with that practicality,” he said. “She was extremely likable. I think everyone who knew Lenore enjoyed being with her.”

Ellen Hoffman, who joined Temple Emanuel in 1976, first encountered Cohen before joining the congregation. Rabbi Adler was on sabbatical, and Cohen was among the lay leaders who conducted Friday night Shabbat services.

Hoffman remembered those services as warm and welcoming, and said Cohen’s knowledge of Jewish tradition, Jewish learning and Shabbat made her “a wonderful asset” to the congregation.

Hoffman later saw Cohen in multiple roles at the temple, including as a volunteer responsible for building and grounds. Whatever the assignment, Hoffman said, Cohen was calm, competent and respected.

“She was just a very gentle, quiet force,” Hoffman said.

Helen Rib, Cohen’s cousin and a fellow Jewish educator, also knew her through the Jewish Educators Association, a Washington-area organization of synagogue teachers and education leaders. Rib said Cohen was skilled at coordinating Hebrew school and Sunday school calendars because she knew how to gather information and bring people together.

“She knew what she wanted to get across and how to do it with grace and with charm,” Rib said.

Rib said Cohen believed Judaism was important and that educators had a responsibility to make it welcoming and meaningful for children, parents and the broader community.

Cohen also defended the importance of Jewish teachers. Rib recalled a time when Jewish educators were dismissed as women looking for something to do on Sunday mornings. Cohen, she said, explained why schools needed both American and Israeli teachers, why teachers should be paid fairly and why strong Jewish education was essential to Jewish continuity.

At home, Cohen’s children saw the same qualities that shaped her public life. Dan Cohen called her the practical parent for her ability to answer down-to-earth questions.

Esther Cohen remembered her mother as loving, gracious and sane in a house full of “smart-alecks.” Cohen made clothes for Esther when she was small and taught her to sew and crochet. During their years on Georgia Avenue, Esther remembered going with her to the Hadassah office to stuff envelopes, watch the addressing machine and smell pages fresh from the copy machine.

Cohen was proud of her family, her marriage and her work as an educator. Her family said she sometimes wondered what might have happened had she been able to pursue more education herself.

But she turned the education she had into a career of teaching, organizing and building Jewish community.

“She was a gem,” Stone said. “She was a gem as a person.”

Ellen Braunstein is a freelance obituary writer. She welcomes suggestions for individuals who had meaningful ties to the greater Washington Jewish community. Email csix@midatlanticmedia.com.