Leonard Cohen remembered as a 'great liturgical writer'

Leonard Cohen, a Jewish singer, songwriter, poet, and novelist most widely known for his song “Hallelujah,” died November 7 at age 82.

Cohen, grandson of a Talmudic scholar, grew up in Montreal’s Jewish community.

“The first poetry that affected me was in the synagogue, in the liturgy and the Bible stories, and that would send shivers down my spine,” Cohen said in the documentary Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man.