Cohen was a rabbi, scholar, and advocate for immigration and social reform. Born in London, England on April 7, 1863, he worked at a Jewish relief agency in London and as an interpreter in South Africa before being ordained as a rabbi in 1884. After assignments in Kingston, Jamaica and in Woodville, Mississippi, he moved to Galveston in 1888 as the rabbi for Temple B'nai Israel. His contributions to Galveston were numerous - he served as a member of the advisory board of Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Publication Society, president of the Texas Historical Society of Galveston, advisory chairman of the Lasker Home for Homeless Children, president of Seamen's Bethel, member of the Executive Council of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, founder and president of the Galveston Open Forum, deputy member of the Council of the Jewish Agency, twenty-year director of the Galveston Community Chest, and one of seven charter members of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association. His work as a member of the Galveston Central Relief Committee in the wake of the 1900 Storm brought him nationwide recognition, as did his foundational work in the Galveston Movement, an effort to bring Jewish immigrants through Galveston to settle in the South and Midwest. On a state level, he advocated for prison reform as a member of the Texas Prison Board. He was also a prolific writer, authoring numerous monographs on the Talmud and on Jewish Texan history. He died on June 12, 1952, and is buried in the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery in Galveston, along with his wife Mollie Levy Cohen and their two children.
