Henry Cohen (rabbi) - History in Galveston

History in Galveston

Born in xxx, Henry Cohen was the rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel from 1888 to 1949, a period of rapid growth and heavy immigration from eastern Europe. He worked to ease relations between German Jews and new Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe, who had different cultural values.

In addition, he organized the Galveston Movement, leading it from 1907-1914. Its goal was to attract Jews fleeing Russia and eastern Europe to Galveston and the Gulf Coast rather than the crowded East Coast cities. Ten thousand Jewish immigrants passed through Galveston during this era, approximately one-third the number who migrated to Palestine during the same period. Cohen personally petitioned President William Howard Taft for an immigrant. Members of the congregation would meet Jewish immigrants arriving at the port, and help them find places to stay, work, and to adjust to the United States.

Cohen is also known for having saved a Greek Catholic from deportation from Texas. He worked to persuade the Galveston School Board to banish William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice from the Galveston public schools, as he considered the character of Shylock to be anti-Semitic.

In 1928 Congregation B'nai Israel decided to add a community center on the lot next to their synagogue; they named it the Henry Cohen Community House in his honor.