Henry Emanuel Cohen

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Date of Birth1 December 1840
Death Date5 January 1912

ParliamentNew South Wales
DesignationMLA West Maitland
PartyIndependent
Term1874 to 1880

BiographyHenry Emanuel Cohen was born in Port Macquarie, NSW. He studied law at Middle Temple in London and after returning to Sydney became a well-known barrister specialising in mercantile law. He was appointed Treasurer in the colonial Farnell government (1877-1878) and Minister for Justice in the Sturt government (1883-1885). Following politics, he became a leading judge on the Supreme Court of NSW and first president of The Arbitration Court from 1902 to 1905. Henry Cohen also devoted considerable time to what he saw as public duties. He was the president of the St. John Ambulance Association and Chairman of the Hospital Saturday Fund. He was active on a host of Jewish communal activities including service to the York St. Synagogue and the preparation that led to the building of the Great Synagogue, consecrated in 1878. He was a director of the Anglo-Jewish Association, the Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Home and the Jewish Board of Education. Henry Cohen died after a heart attack at sea aged 71. A biography of Henry Cohen may be found in the Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, Volume 2 1944-1948.