Anna Rebecca Cohn (20 September 1950 – 24 March 2019) was an American museum director and Judaic scholar. Her four-decade career began in the curation of Judaica and centered on the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), where she served as a director.

Early life and education

Cohn was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, in 1950, and spent part of her childhood in Israel and the Netherlands. She studied in Israel for a semester of high school on the Eisendrath International Exchange (EIE) program, followed by her junior year of college (1970–71) at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. Cohn returned to the United States and continued her undergraduate studies at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in history and Judaic studies. She then studied art history at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Career

Cohn quickly rose to become a director at the B'nai B'rith Museum and the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

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, at the time, one of the world's largest museums of Judaica. In 1982, Mark E. Talisman of Project Judaica recruited Cohn to join the curatorial team preparing ''

The Precious Legacy ''The Precious Legacy: Judaic Treasures from the Czechoslovak State Collections'' was one of the names for a travelling exhibition of History of the Jews in the Czech Republic, Czech Jewish art and ritual objects that opened at The Whitworth in ...

''. Cohn travelled to the State Jewish Museum in

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, Czechoslovakia, and helped select items for loan to the Smithsonian Institution for the travelling exhibition. Cohn was chosen as the international tour's project director, and was involved in every aspect of the undertaking. During the same period, Cohn was director of planning for the future US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which she believed "should strive for authenticity". She resigned from the position in January 1985, citing working problems with the oversight council. A turnover of development personnel followed as the council sought a new direction for the museum and its exhibitions. Cohn returned to the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), becoming a program director. Among her projects were the exhibits ''Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska'', ''September 11: Bearing Witness to History'', and ''381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story''. In a 2000 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' interview, Cohn discussed bringing travelling exhibits of all kinds to Middle America, where art appreciation had grown, but towns couldn't support permanent museums, which had led her to develop the Museum on Main Street initiative.

Later life and death

Cohn retired in 2014, citing health reasons. She returned to Minneapolis, where she died in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohn, Anna 1950 births 2019 deaths People from Minneapolis Williams College alumni Smithsonian Institution people 20th-century American Jews American women museum directors Judaic scholars 21st-century American Jews