Israel Cohen (Zionist)

Israel Cohen (1879–26 November 1961) was an Anglo-Jewish, Zionist leader, writer, and journalist.

Born to Polish Jewish immigrants in Manchester, England in 1879, Israel Cohen was educated at Manchester’s Jews’ School (1884-1892), Manchester Grammar School (1892-1895); and then simultaneously at Jews’ College and University College, London, where he received his BA. From 1895 on, Cohen became actively involved in the Zionist cause.

Upon reading an article in the Jewish Chronicle about pogroms in Russia, Cohen became interested in Jewish affairs and political matters in 1891. Following a speech given by Theodore Herzl, he was further inspired to join the ranks of the Zionist movement in 1896 and became a lifelong supporter of the Zionist movement upon the establishment of the World Zionist Organization at the First Zionist Congress in Basel in August 1897.

From 1909 to the beginning of World War II Cohen directed the English department of the Zionist Central Office in Cologne and later in Berlin. During World War I he was interned in Ruhleben prison for sixteen months from November 1914. He described these experiences in Ruhleben Prison Camp: A Record of Nineteen Months’ Internment, which was published in 1917.

In 1918 Cohen became secretary for the World Zionist Organization in London. During the years 1918-1921, he carried out a number of important diplomatic and fund-raising missions on behalf of the Zionist leadership. These took him to Poland and Hungary, where he investigated and reported on the recent surge in pogroms and other anti-Jewish acts of violence; and to Jewish communities in Australia, Hong Kong, India, China, and Japan. In Harbin, China, Cohen sought aid for the Palestine Restoration Fund, whose goal it was to purchase Palestine from Turkey. Cohen later described his encounters in The Journey of a Jewish Traveller (1925), and A Jewish Pilgrimage: The Autobiography of Israel Cohen (1956).

Following the Zionist Congress of 1921, which took place in Karlsbad, Cohen was appointed general secretary of the Zionist organization in London, a position he held through 1939. He was also a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and in 1946 he was appointed head of its Foreign Affairs Committee delegation to the peace conference in Paris.

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