You are here: Home Communications Pressroom News In Memoriam: Naomi Cohen, Distinguished Alumna and Pioneering Hunter Professor

In Memoriam: Naomi Cohen, Distinguished Alumna and Pioneering Hunter Professor

The Hunter community mourns the loss of Professor Emerita Naomi Cohen '47. Professor Cohen was a devoted teacher and leading scholar of American Jewish history. One of the first women professors of Jewish studies, she was also a generous mentor to women in her discipline. After retiring in 1996, she moved to Israel, where she continued to write. She died on January 27 at the age of 91.

After graduating from Hunter, Professor Cohen earned her doctorate at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and Columbia University. She returned to Hunter in 1962 as an assistant professor, and spent the rest of her career on the Hunter faculty. Treasured by her Hunter students and colleagues, she also taught at Columbia, the CUNY Graduate Center, and JTS. Among her many influential works are two books that won the National Jewish Book Award: Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality, lauded as a landmark examination of church-state separation in the U.S., and Encounter with Emancipation: The German Jews in the United States, 1830-1914.

Jennifer J. Raab
President, Hunter College

Document Actions
HUNTER COLLEGE
695 Park Ave
NY, NY 10065
212.772.4000