TSVI-YOYSEF COHEN (HARRY J. KAHN)

TSVI-YOYSEF COHEN (HARRY J. KAHN) (b. December 17, 1880)

            He was born in Kilye (Kiliya), southern Bessarabia.  He then moved with his family to Berdichev, where he studied in religious elementary school and with private tutors.  In 1902 he moved to New York, and there he was among the first Labor Zionist activists, later active in the American Jewish Congress, the Jewish National Fund, and other groups.  He began writing articles in 1904 in Di naye shtime (The new voice) in New York (which he also co-edited), later contributing to: Idisher kempfer (Jewish fighter) which was initially in Philadelphia and later in New York; Dos naye folk (The new people); Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper); Der tog (The day); Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal); Der amerikaner (The American); Der fihrer (The leader); Brukliner naye tsaytung (New Brooklyn newspaper); Brukliner yidishe shtime (Jewish voice of Brooklyn); Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper); Bney-tsien-shtime (Voice of the children of Zion), of which he was editor of the Yiddish division of the paper; and Al hamishmar (On guard), which he also co-edited—all of these in New York.  He served as the American correspondent for Di idishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper) in Vilna.  He was the author of the pamphlets: A frage tsu idishe sotsyalistn (A question for Jewish socialists) (New York, 1943), 8 pp.; and Fuftsik yor poyle-tsienizm in amerike (Fifty years of Labor Zionism in American) (New York, 1953), 38 pp.  He also wrote under such pseudonyms as: H. Cohen, H. Y. Cohen, and A. Nister.  He was last living in New York.

Source: Tsukunft (New York) (November 1953).

Khayim Leyb Fuks