Lyon Cohen

Lyon Cohen (born Yehuda Leib Cohen; May 11, 1868 – August 17, 1937) was a Polish-born Canadian businessman and a philanthropist. He was the grandfather of singer/poet Leonard Cohen.

Biography Cohen was born in Congress Poland, part of the Russian Empire, to a Jewish family on May 11, 1868. He immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1871.

In 1897, Cohen and Samuel William Jacobs founded the Canadian Jewish Times, the first English-language Jewish newspaper in Canada. The newspaper promoted the Canadianization of recent East European Jewish immigrants and encouraged their acceptance of Canadian customs He also served as president of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Horace Rives Cohen, who was a captain and quartermaster of his battalion in World War I; Sylvia Lillian Cohen.