Leonard Cohen — singer with roots in the Russian Empire
Leonard Cohen was a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter whose work — Suzanne, Bird on the Wire, Chelsea Hotel No. 2, Hallelujah — placed him among the greatest songwriters in the history of popular music. Starting as a novelist before pivoting to music at 33, he released albums for five decades and performed his final world tour at age 82.
Tracing the roots — Lith
His mother Masha Klonitsky was a Lithuanian Jew whose family had emigrated from Kaunas (Russian Empire, now Lithuania) to Canada. Cohen grew up in the English-speaking Jewish community of Montreal, deeply shaped by his Lithuanian-Jewish heritage — the tradition of Talmudic study, the poetry of grief and devotion, the melancholy and the humour that permeate every line he ever wrote.
A career defined by ambition
"Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."