Jacob I. Cohen | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 2, 1744 Oberdorf, near Nördlingen, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | October 9, 1823 (aged 79) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Resting place | Mikveh Israel Cemetery, Philadelphia |
| Occupation | Merchant |
| Known for | Co-founder of Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome, Richmond |
| Spouses |
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| Relatives | Jacob I. Cohen Jr. (nephew) |
Jacob I. Cohen (January 2, 1744 – October 9, 1823) was a German-born Jewish merchant in Richmond, Virginia, and Philadelphia. He served in a Charleston militia company during the American Revolutionary War and later, with his partner Isaiah Isaacs, became one of Richmond's leading merchants and a founder of Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome, the first synagogue in Virginia.
Cohen was born on January 2, 1744, near Nördlingen in Bavaria, to Joshua and Peslah Cohen. He emigrated to America in 1773, the first of his family to do so, and settled at first in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was licensed to trade with Native Americans.
Cohen moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and during the Revolution joined the company of Captain Richard Lushington in the Charleston militia. The company became known as the "Jew Company," although arguably only a minority of its members were Jewish. Cohen fought under General William Moultrie at the Battle of Beaufort in 1779.
By 1781 Cohen was in Richmond in partnership with Isaiah Isaacs, a fellow militia veteran and the city's first permanent Jewish resident. Their firm, Cohen & Isaacs, was known locally as "The Jews' Store," and the partners also ran a tavern called the Bird in the Hand. They invested their profits in large tracts of land in the western territories and hired Daniel Boone to help survey them. The partnership was dissolved amicably in 1792.
Cohen took an active part in Richmond's civic life. He served on the town council beginning in the mid-1790s, sat on a grand jury, and was a Freemason. In 1789 he and Isaacs were among the founders of Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome, Richmond's first Jewish congregation and the sixth in the United States, to which Cohen gave generous donations, including valuable ritual objects.
In 1782, on a buying trip to Philadelphia, Cohen applied to join Congregation Mikveh Israel. There he sought to marry Esther (Elizabeth Whitlock) Mordecai, widow of the merchant Moses Mordecai and a convert to Judaism. Because Cohen was a kohen, a member of the priestly class who under Jewish law may not marry a convert, the question of whether the congregation's minister, Gershom Mendes Seixas, could officiate became a matter of controversy; Mordecai Moses Mordecai was one of three people asked to rule on it. The couple married nonetheless and returned to Richmond.
After Esther's death Cohen settled in Philadelphia, where on November 3, 1807, he married Rachel Jacobs Polack. He again became active in Jewish affairs and served as parnas (president) of Mikveh Israel. Rachel died in 1821.
Cohen died in Philadelphia on October 9, 1823, and was buried in Mikveh Israel Cemetery. In his will he freed the people he had enslaved and left each of them $25.
Cohen's younger brother Israel followed him from Bavaria to Richmond in 1787; Israel's son was the Baltimore banker and politician Jacob I. Cohen Jr.
A miniature portrait of Cohen on ivory, painted around 1780 by Abraham or Joseph Daniel, is in the collection of the Maryland Center for History and Culture.