Rabbi Henry Cohen

Henry Cohen came to Galveston at twenty-five after an unusual apprenticeship: London's Board of Guardians, a stint as an interpreter for the British government in Cape Colony, and pulpits in Kingston, Jamaica, and Woodville, Mississippi, where he also taught romance languages at a female seminary. A recognized Talmud scholar fluent in more than ten languages, he wrote Settlement of the Jews in Texas in 1894 and a life of the colonizer Henry Castro two years later. In the 1920s he fought the Ku Klux Klan. Texas Christian University gave him an honorary doctorate in 1948.

What the plaque says

Rabbi Henry Cohen (1863-1952) Called the "First Citizen of Texas" by U. S. President Woodrow Wilson, Rabbi Henry Cohen, an internationally known humanitarian, was born in London, England. He came to Galveston in 1888 as spiritual leader of congregation B'Nai Israel and served for 64 years until his death. In 1889 he married Mollie Levy (1862-1951) and they had two children. After the disastrous storm of 1900, Texas Governor Joseph D. Sayers appointed Rabbi Cohen to head the Central Relief Committee. From 1907 until World War I he helped shiploads of immigrants become settled in cities around the country. During World War I he was instrumental in influencing Congress to provide Jewish naval chaplains. Appointed to the Texas Prison Board by Governor Dan Moody, Rabbi Cohen introduced measures for more humane treatment of prisoners. He assisted New York slum residents in moving south. He fought for social justice for persons of all races and creeds. He helped foster the spirit of brotherhood and interfaith goodwill existing in Galveston today. When Rabbi Cohen died, the Commissioners Court of Galveston County called him one of this country's greatest humanitarians and spiritual leaders. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• 1859 Ashton Villa — 0.3 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• The Strand — 0.3 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• Moody Mansion — 0.4 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 0.5 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.

More markers nearby

• The Rt. Rev. Monsignor James Martin Kirwin — steps away
• Norris Wright Cuney — steps away
• Texas Bar Association — steps away
• George Campbell Childress — steps away