Levy Barent Cohen (1747 – 1808) was a Dutch-born British financier and community worker.

Early life

Levy Barent Cohen was born in Amsterdam in 1747. He was the son of Barent Cohen, a wealthy merchant.

The Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

, Funk & Wagnalls, New York. Retrieved 6 December 2019 Cohen was of Ashkenazi-Jewish descent.

Career

Cohen and his brother moved to England where they developed a large business in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He became known as one of the leading merchants of the city.

Personal life

Cohen was naturalized as a British subject in 1798. He was closely involved in a number of Jewish charities and filled successively all the offices of the Duke's Place Synagogue, the principal Ashkenazi

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...

in London. He married twice, first to Fanny (née Diamantschleifer) then, after her death, to Fanny's sister, Lydia. He had eight surviving children. Through the marriages his children contracted, including with

Nathan Mayer Rothschild Nathan Mayer Rothschild (16 September 1777 – 28 July 1836) was an English-German banker, businessman and financier. Born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, he was the third of the five sons of Gutle (Schnapper) and Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a ...

and Sir

Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, aft ...

, nearly all the leading Jewish families in England were connected with him. In addition, his brother's daughter was

Nanette Salomons Cohen Nanette Salomons Cohen (after marriage, Nanette Pressburg; c 1764 – 1833) was a Dutch citizen known for being the maternal grandmother of Karl Marx, the socialist philosopher and economist. Life Nanette Salomons Cohen was born in 1764. Her p ...

, the maternal grandmother of who, with his son

Gerard Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...

, founded Philips Electronics.

Death

Cohen died in England in 1808.

References

1747 births 1808 deaths British bankers British financial businesspeople Dutch bankers British Jews Dutch emigrants to England Dutch Jews British people of Dutch-Jewish descent Jewish bankers Businesspeople from Amsterdam Cohen family {{UK-business-bio-1740s-stub