Leopold Cohn | |
---|---|
Born | September 12, 1862 Berezna, Hungary |
Died | December 19, 1937 Brooklyn, NY |
Other names | Itsak Leib Joszovics |
Occupation | Missionary |
Known for | Christian evangelism |
Leopold Hoffman Cohn (September 12, [1] 1862, Berezna, Hungary - December 19, 1937, Brooklyn, NY) was a Jewish convert to Evangelicalism [2] who formed the Brownsville Mission to the Jews, an organization that now exists as Chosen People Ministries. Cohn lived in Hungary, and, shortly after his arrival to the United States, converted to Evangelicalism. [2] He was ordained a Baptist minister. [3] In his day, he was one of the most successful and controversial Christian evangelists to the Jews. [4] [5] In 1930, Cohn was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Wheaton College, [6] an Evangellical college.
Leopold Cohn was born as Eisik Leib Yosowitz in 1862 in a small town in eastern Hungary. [7] Cohn states in his autobiography that he was ordained as a rabbi in his native Hungary in the 1880s, [4] though Jews doubted this claim. One historian has asserted that whether or not Cohn was actually an ordained rabbi, he was clearly very familiar with rabbinic texts. [8] Even his name was contested: Rabbi David Max Eichhorn writes that "As early as October 13, 1893, Adolph Benjamin wrote in the Hebrew Standard that Cohn's real name was Itsak Leib Joszovics". [9] In a 1913 court case, a number of people claiming to be Cohn's relatives and friends stated that Cohn was in fact Joszovics, a saloonkeeper who had been arrested and sentenced for fraud in Hungary in 1891, and that he left Hungary to avoid serving a 2+1⁄2-year sentence, leaving behind his wife and children. [10] [11] The relationship between Cohn and his detractors was acrimonious, resulting in several lawsuits and counter-complaints. [12] Cohn denied the accusations and the court refused to act upon the charge. [8]
In his later years, Cohn turned over many of the day-to-day operations of the mission to his son, Joseph Cohn, while he concentrated on fund-raising. Cohn died in 1937, but the organization he founded continued to thrive even after his death. [7]
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Chosen People Ministries Shortly after Leopold Cohn arrived in New York City from Hungary in 1892, he forsook his Jewish heritage and converted to Christianity. He founded the Williamsburg Mission in 1894 and started a newsletter, Chosen People, in an attempt to apprise Christians of Evangelistic initiatives among the Jews. In 1924, Cohn gave the Williamsburg Mission a new name, the American Board of Missions to the Jews; the administration of the organization devolved in 1937 to Joseph H. Cohn, a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, after the death of his father, the mission's founder. The San Francisco arm of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, headed by Moishe Rosen, broke off from the national organization in 1973 to form Jews for Jesus. The original mission changed its name yet again in 1986, to Chosen People Ministries. The organization, now based in Charlotte, North Carolina, produces a daily radio program, Through Jewish Eyes, occasional television specials, and various evangelistic materials.
The founder of the mission, Leopold Cohn, became one of the most noted and at the same time controversial figures in the field of Jewish evangelism, provoking heated reaction from all sides. For the mission's people and its supporters, he was nothing short of a saint. For his antagonists, both Jewish and Christian, he was practically the devil incarnate. The controversy manifested itself even in relation to Cohn's elementary biographical details. There has been little agreement, for example, as to the events of his early life. Even his real name has been in dispute. The founder of the mission was born in 1862 in Berezna, Hungary. According to his autobiographical account, which has become the accepted history for his mission, he spent his early years studying with the Hasidic rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum. He then pursued his studies at the prestigious non-Hasidic Hatam Sofer's Yeshiva in Presburg, currently Bratislava, the Slovak capital. According to his account, he was ordained as a rabbi when he was eighteen.
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