Lyon Cohen
{{Short description|Polish-born Canadian businessman and philanthropist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lyon Cohen
| image = Lyon Cohen.png
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = Yehuda Leib Cohen
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1868|05|11}}
| birth_place = Suwałki, Suwałki Governorate, Congress Poland{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cohen_lyon_16E.html|website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography|title=Biography - Cohen, Lyon|first=Lapidus|last=Stephen|access-date=12 June 2022}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=|1937|08|17|1868|05|11}}
| death_place = Old Orchard Beach, Maine, U.S.{{Citation|url=http://pdfs.jta.org/1937/1937-08-17_015.pdf?_ga=2.73275281.327614203.1558497522-1688910900.1558497522|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|location=New York City|title=Lyon Cohen, Canadian Jewish Leader Dies at 89 [sic]|page=6|date=17 August 1937|access-date=12 June 2022}}
| death_cause =
| parents =
| spouse = Rachel Friedman
| children = Nathan Bernard Cohen
Horace Rives Cohen
Lawrence Zebulun Cohen
Sylvia Lillian Cohen
| resting_place =
| nationality = Canadian
| known_for = first president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, co-founder of the Canadian Jewish Times
| occupation =
}}
Lyon Cohen (born Yehuda Leib Cohen; May 11, 1868 – August 17, 1937) was a Polish-born Canadian businessman and a philanthropist. He was the grandfather of singer/poet Leonard Cohen.
Biography
Cohen was born in Congress Poland, part of the Russian Empire, to a Jewish family on May 11, 1868.[http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/LyonCohen.htm The Quebec History Encyclopedia: Lyon Cohen] retrieved April 22, 2012 He immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1871. He was educated at the McGill Model School and the Catholic Commercial Academy in Montreal. In 1888, he entered the firm of Lee & Cohen in Montreal; later became partner with his father in the firm of L. Cohen & Son; in 1895, he established W. R. Cuthbert & Co; in 1900, he organized the Canadian Improvement Co., a dredging contractor; in 1906, he founded The Freedman Co. in Montreal; and in May 1919, he organized and became President of Canadian Export Clothiers, Ltd. The Freedman Company went on to become one of Montreal’s largest clothing companies.{{cite web|url=http://imjm.ca/location/1080|website=Museum of Jewish Montreal|title=Lyon Cohen - Freedman Company|first=Richard|last=Kreitner|access-date=10 November 2018}}
In 1897, Cohen and Samuel William Jacobs founded the Canadian Jewish Times, the first English-language Jewish newspaper in Canada.[http://www.cjhn.ca/permalink/145 Cohen, Lyon] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323075541/http://www.cjhn.ca/permalink/145 |date=March 23, 2012 }} Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives The newspaper promoted the Canadianization of recent East European Jewish immigrants and encouraged their acceptance of Canadian customs as Cohen felt that the Old World customs of immigrant Jews were one of the main causes of anti-Semitism. In 1914, the paper was purchased by Hirsch Wolofsky, owner of the Yiddish-language Keneder Adler, who transformed it into the Canadian Jewish Chronicle.
Philanthropy
Cohen was elected the first president of the Canadian Jewish Congress in 1919 and organized the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada. Cohen was also a leader of the Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Society (later the Baron de Hirsch Institute) and the United Talmud Torahs, a Jewish day school in Montreal.[http://www.jewishpubliclibrary.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Newspapers-of-Jewish-Montreal.pdf Newspapers of Jewish Montreal"] (page 3), Jewish Public Library Archives. He also served as president of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim and president of the Jewish Colonization Association in Canada.
Personal life
Cohen married Rachel Friedman of Montreal on February 17, 1891. She was the founder and President of Jewish Endeavour Sewing School. They had three sons and one daughter:
- Nathan Bernard Cohen, who served as a lieutenant in the World War; he married Lithuanian Jewish immigrant Masha Klonitsky and they had one daughter and one son:
- Esther Cohen and
- singer/poet Leonard Cohen.[https://books.google.com/books?id=sR4Ch1dMe8IC&dq=Nathan+Cohen+and+Marsha+Klinitsky+Cohen&pg=PA339 The International Who's Who 2004] retrieved April 22, 2012{{cite interview|last=Cohen |first=Leonard |interviewer=Ray Martin |title=The Midday Show With Ray Martin |url=http://www.leonardcohencroatia.com/raymartin1985.php |work=ABC |location=Sydney |date=24 May 1985 |accessdate=1 October 2008 |quote=My – my mother was from Lithuania which was a part of Poland and my great-grandfather came over from Poland to Canada. |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060224145524/http://leonardcohencroatia.com/raymartin1985.php |archivedate=24 February 2006 }}[http://www.askmen.com/celebs/men/entertainment/leonard-cohen/index.html Leonard Cohen Biography ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911111738/http://www.askmen.com/celebs/men/entertainment/leonard-cohen/index.html |date=September 11, 2014 }}: Leonard Cohen was born to a Polish father and a Lithuanian-Jewish mother in Quebec in 1934.
- Horace Rives Cohen, who was a captain and quartermaster of his battalion in World War I;
- Lawrence Zebulun Cohen, student at McGill University, and[http://www.cjnews.com/?q=node/98039 Canadian Jewish News: "Earliest Canadian-made chanukiyah discovered"] November 26, 2012
- Sylvia Lillian Cohen.
References
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{{Succession box|title=President of the Canadian Jewish Congress|
before=none|
after=Samuel William Jacobs|
years=1919-1934}}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Lyon}}
Category:Businesspeople from Montreal
Category:Canadian Jewish Congress members
Category:Canadian newspaper publishers (people)
Category:Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent
Category:Canadian philanthropists
Category:Naturalized citizens of Canada