Leopold Cohn (Christian clergyman)

Leopold Hoffman Cohn (September 12, 1862, Berezna, Hungary - December 19, 1937, Brooklyn, NY) was a Jewish convert to Evangelicalism who formed the Brownsville Mission to the Jews, an organization that now exists as Chosen People Ministries. Cohn lived in Hungary, and, shortly after his arrival to the United States, converted to Evangelicalism. He was ordained a Baptist minister. In his day, he was one of the most successful and controversial Christian evangelists to the Jews. In 1930, Cohn was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Wheaton College, an Evangellical college.

Early life
Leopold Cohn was born as Eisik Leib Yosowitz in 1862 in a small town in eastern Hungary. Cohn states in his autobiography that he was ordained as a rabbi in his native Hungary in the 1880s, though Jews doubted this claim. One historian has asserted that whether or not Cohn was actually an ordained rabbi, he was clearly very familiar with rabbinic texts. Even his name was contested: Rabbi David Max Eichhorn writes that "As early as October 13, 1893, Adolph Benjamin wrote in the Hebrew Standard that Cohn's real name was Itsak Leib Joszovics". In a 1913 court case, a number of people claiming to be Cohn's relatives and friends stated that Cohn was in fact Joszovics, a saloonkeeper who had been arrested and sentenced for fraud in Hungary in 1891, and that he left Hungary to avoid serving a $2 1/2$-year sentence, leaving behind his wife and children. The relationship between Cohn and his detractors was acrimonious, resulting in several lawsuits and counter-complaints. Cohn denied the accusations and the court refused to act upon the charge.

Later years and death
In his later years, Cohn turned over many of the day-to-day operations of the mission to his son, Joseph Cohn, while he concentrated on fund-raising. Cohn died in 1937, but the organization he founded continued to thrive even after his death.