Jessica Cohen
Jessie Cohen served as editor of the Jewish Review and Observer for most of her life, maintaining an important resource for Jews in the city of Cleveland. She ran the Jewish Review and Observer for decades, finally retiring due to ill health, and remained editor emeritus until her death in 1945. Cohen was also active in the Temple Women’s Association and the National Council of Jewish Women and was an honorary member of the Cleveland Women Writers Association.
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Jessica (Jessie) Cohen devoted the majority of her adult life to the Jewish press. Following an early career in the Cleveland, Ohio, public school system, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she became the associate editor of that city’s Jewish Spectator. She remained in that position for five years. Cohen left Tennessee to return to Cleveland as the editor of the Jewish Review and Observer. She remained as its editor until forced to retire due to ill health. Until her death, Cohen served as editor emeritus.
Jessie Cohen was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 11, 1869, the daughter of early Cleveland settlers Elias and Rachel Cohen. Her father was active in Great Lakes shipping. Jessie Cohen attended Cleveland public schools and graduated from Central High and the Cleveland Normal School, which became the School of Education at Case Western Reserve University.
Cohen was active in a number of organizations. She was a member of the National Council of Jewish Women and Temple Women’s Association and was an honorary member of the Cleveland Women Writers Association. Jessie Cohen died at her home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on August 15, 1945.
AJYB 6 (1904–1905): 75, 48:486.
Jewish Review and Observer 17, no. 33 (August 17, 1945), 1:3.
Obituary. NYTimes, August 17, 1945, sec. 2, 17:4.
