Salomon Jacob Cohen

Salomon Jacob Cohen. Frontispiece to his verse epic Nir David , Vienna 1834.

Salomon Jacob Cohen (born on December 23, 1772 in Meseritz ; died on February 20, 1845 in Hamburg ; שלום הכהן; also: Schalom ben Jakob Kohen , Schalom Jacob Cohen , SJ Cohn , Salomon Hakohen , Shalom HaKohen and other name variants) was a German Jewish Hebraist, teacher, writer and Bible translator, and an important representative of the Haskala in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna.

As a teenager, Cohen went to Berlin, where he learned to love Hebrew poetry through Hartwig Wessely and was soon considered an outstanding stylist of Hebrew. From 1800 to 1808 he was a teacher of Hebrew and religion at the Jewish Free School in Berlin founded by David Friedländer ; In 1808 he founded the Society of Friends of the Hebrew Language ; From 1809 to 1811 he was the last editor of the first Hebrew literary magazine Ha-Meassef , which he tried in vain to revive.

Cohen also worked in Altona , Dessau and London before he settled in Hamburg. In 1820 he was brought to Vienna by the printer Anton Schmidt , where he founded the first Hebrew magazine in Austria, the literary magazine Bikkurej ha-ittim (“first fruits of the times”).

In 1810 Cohen translated the biblical book Jeremiah into German for the Fürth Bible ; From 1824 to 1827 he published a complete German edition of the Old Testament in Hamburg .

Works

Mishle Agur. Berlin 1799 (collection of fables, with German translation).
Torat Leschon Ivrit - Hebrew Language Teaching. Three volumes, Berlin 1802.
Oriental plants on northern soil. A collection of new Hebrew poetry with German translation. Frankfurt a. M. 1807 digitized .
Catechism of the Israelite Religion. For the first lesson for Israelite boys and girls. Hamburg 1812 (also published in Danish translation).
Amal-ve-Thuerza. Rödelheim 1812 (drama).
George Emunah. London 1815 (Handbook of the Jewish Religion; with English translation by Dr. Josua van Oven).
Masa Batawi. Amsterdam 1814 (Ode in honor of Holland; with Dutch translation by H. Somerhausen).
Ketaw Joscher. Vienna 1820 (collection of Hebrew and German sample letters).
The Holy Scriptures. with the greatest possible correctness of the Hebrew text. Along with an improved German translation. Hamburg 1824/27.
Ner Dawid. Vienna 1834 (poem) digitized .
Kore ha-Dorot. Wilna 1837 (Jewish history).

Individual references, comments

↑ The year of birth is usually mentioned in the literature as 1772, also in the Jewish Encyclopedia . On the other hand, John McClintock's Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature of 1894 mentions December 23, 1771.

Literature (selection)

Günter Stemberger , History of Jewish Literature , Munich 1977.
Meyer Waxman: A History of Jewish Literature. [1936]. Vol. 3: From the Middle of the Eighteenth Century to 1880. New York / London 1960 (3rd ed.). Pp. 153-158.
Shmuel Feiner: The Neglected Generation: Post-Berlin Maskilim in the Age of Conservatism, 1797-1824. In: Studia Rosenthaliana 40 (2007/2008). Pp. 205-215.
Judah Leo Landau: Short Lectures on Modern Hebrew Literature. Johannesburg 1923, pp. 111-126.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Cohen, Salomon Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kohen, Shalom ben Jacob; Cohen, Shalom Jacob; Cohn, SJ; Salomon Hakohen; Shalom HaKohen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Jewish teacher and author
DATE OF BIRTH	December 23, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH	Meseritz
DATE OF DEATH	February 20, 1845
Place of death	Hamburg

[1] The year of birth is usually mentioned in the literature as 1772, also in the Jewish Encyclopedia . On the other hand, John McClintock's Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature of 1894 mentions December 23, 1771.