Background
Cashdan was born in Starye Dorogi, Minsk, (then Russia and now) Belarus, the fifth child of Joseph and Bessie Cashdan. He came to Liverpool, United Kingdom in 1905, when 3 months old, with his mother and four siblings. (His father, Rabbi Joseph Cashdan, had came to the United Kingdom at an earlier date and worked in Liverpool as a rabbi and shohet).
Education
Cashdan studied law at London University and also attended Jews" College where in 1927 he obtained a first class honours degree in Semitics.
Career
He was a chaplain in the Royal Air Force during World World War II, a senior lecturer at Jews" College and wrote a number of important books of Jewish interest. Eli, after attending school (at one of first Jewish day schools in the United Kingdom, run by Doctor South Fox), went on to study at Liverpool Yeshiva (Liverpool Talmudical College. Yeshiva Torat Chaim) where he gained semikha from Rabbi Mordechai Yaacov Krasner at the very young age of 17.
He continued his law studies and was called to the Bar at Lincoln"s Inn in 1933.
Cashdan also received an Master of Arts degree in Semitics from London University. In December 1930 Cashdan married Minnie Cohen whom he had met at the Rosh Pinah Youth Group he had set up.
Foreign some years the Cashdans lived in Hove, Sussex, after his appointment in 1956 to Jews" College he moved back to London and lived until his death in Hendon. Cashdan was a bibliophile and had an extensive collection of books of Jewish interest.
In 1941 Cashdan joined the Royal Air Force and he served as senior Jewish chaplain in Middle East until he was discharged in 1946 with the rank of wing commander.
He took up an educational post as headmaster of the local Hebrew classes in Hove, Sussex until 1950 when he was appointed senior lecturer at Jews" College. Teaching Semitics and other Jewish academic subjects in Jews" College until his retirement in 1975, a generation of British Rabbis passed through his hands, including Chief Rabbis, Lord Jakobovits and Lord Sacks. Cashdan was a regular and popular teacher at the summer and winter schools of Jewish Youth Study Groups.
Cashdan never served as a communal rabbi and although he had semikha he did not use the title rabbi until later on in his life.