COHN, ALBERT

COHN, ALBERT (1814–1877), French scholar and philanthropist. Cohn, who studied philosophy and Oriental languages at Vienna University, was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, German, and Italian. In 1836 he settled in Paris, where he became closely associated with james de rothschild , and was put in charge of his philanthropic works. In this capacity he   traveled frequently to Morocco, Algeria, and Turkey, where he was instrumental in improving the condition of the Jewish communities, and to Palestine, where he promoted the establishment of Jewish hospitals and schools in Jaffa and Jerusalem. From 1860 to 1876, Cohn taught at the rabbinical seminary in Paris. He was also a member of the central committee of the Alliance Isráelite Universelle . Cohn wrote various scholarly and religious works, including his partly autobiographical "Lettres Juives" (in L'Univers Israélite, 20, 1864/65). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Loeb, Biographie d' Albert Cohn (1878).