Mapping Jewish Charleston

1 Judah P. Benjamin

King Street

2 Cardozo Family

8 Courthouse Square

3 Cohen Family

Broad Street

4 Mordecai Cohen

119 Broad Street

5 Mordecai Cohen

97 Broad Street

6 Philip M. Cohen

63 Broad Street

7 Coming Street Cemetery

189 Coming Street

8 Dacosta Cemetery

55 Amherst Street

9 Dr. Jacob Canter DeLaMotta

106 Broad Street

10 Dr. Jacob Canter DeLaMotta

Logan Street

11 Morris Goldsmith

Magazine Street

12 Harby Cemetery

25 Hanover Street

13 Henry Jefferson Harby

Church Street

14 Isaac Harby

100 Tradd Street

15 Nathan Hart

220 King Street

16 Hebrew Orphan Society

88 Broad Street

17 Hertz Family

King Street

18 Myer Jacobs

Calhoun Street

19 Jewish Auctioneers

East Bay Street at Vendue Range

20 Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim

90 Hasell Street

21 Benjamin D. Lazarus

Tradd Street

22 Joshua Lazarus

East Bay Street

23 Marks Lazarus

109 Tradd Street

24 Rachel DeTorres Benjamin Lazarus

229 King Street

25 Elias & Lyon Levy

Atlantic Street

26 Jacob C. Levy

301 East Bay Street

27 Mary Ann Suares Levy

King Street

28 David Lopez, Jr.

Logan Street

29 Abraham Moïse II

College Street

30 Theodore Sidney Moïse

222 (today 234) King Street.

31 Moses Cohen Mordecai

69 Meeting Street

32 Isaiah Moses

King Street

33 Raphael J. Moses

Beaufain Street

34 Abraham Ottolengui

Pinckney Street

35 Gustavus Poznanski

387 King Street

36 Reformed Society Of Israelites

Meeting Street

37 Benjamin A. Rodriguez

Corner of Meeting and Hasell Streets

38 Shearit Israel Synagogue

34 Wentworth Street

39 Judith Suares

King Street

40 Samuel Valentine

Clifford Street

41 Isaac And Sarah Woolf

King Street

42 Rachel Woolf

Orange Street

Cohen Family

Broad Street

A close-knit family of reformers

Residence of Hyam Cohen (1788–1850) and his wife, Esther Moses Moïse (1784–1860), who was the widow of Cherie Moïse (1721–1823). Cohen, a broker and auctioneer, was appointed the City of Charleston’s Assessor in about 1837.

In 1832, Cordelia Moïse (1810–1869), Esther’s daughter by her first marriage (and the niece of Penina Moïse, the poet, and Abraham Moïse II, a leader of the reform movement) married Philip M. Cohen (1808–1879), a pharmacist. Showing the complicated network of intermarriage among Charleston’s Jewish families, Philip Cohen was the nephew of Cordelia’s stepfather Hyam Cohen. Both men were among the signers of the petition to install an organTwo years after the devastating 1838 fire, members of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim circulated a document advocating for the installation of an organ in the new synagogue, then under construction. The move was supported by hazan Gustavus Poznanski and reform-inclined congregants who wanted to enjoy instrumental music in synagogue worship. It was opposed by those who held to the traditional prohibition of instrumental music on the Sabbath. The “organ faction” won the day and the traditionalists left to form their own congregation, Shearit Israel. at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in 1840. City directories show the younger couple living with their extended family here on Broad Street during the mid-1830s.

By 1841, both Cohen couples had moved to Tradd Street along with Philip’s two brothers, Augustus Philip Cohen (1810–1882) and Lawrence Ludlow Cohen (1815–1847), whose wife was Miriam Louisa DeLeon (1822–1869). Like their uncle and older brother, Augustus and Lawrence also identified as reformers.