Jacob Xenab Cohen, 1889-1955

Jacob Xenab Cohen (1889-1955)

Jacob Cohen was born in New York City to Lithuanian Jewish parents on August 15, 1889. As the eldest son of immigrant parents, young Jacob carried his parents' expectations for his success as well as the responsibility of caring for numerous younger siblings after school. A quiet and dynamic young man, Jacob Cohen graduated from the Hebrew Technical Institute at the age of 17, and was immediately hired as a draftsman by a Brooklyn manufacturing company. In late 1906, the engineering firm of Herring and Fuller hired him, where by 1915 he had established his reputation as a sanitary engineer. Attending night school at Cooper Union, he achieved his B.S.C.E. in 1911, and was hired to teach night classes there in 1913. It was during this period that he adopted the middle name "Xenab" to distinguish himself from the other Jacob Cohens then living in New York.

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