Kohn, Esther Loeb (1875-1965)

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Item Relations

Member of (7)
Mentions (1)
Received by (11)
Mentioned in (3)
Comments (0)

American Committee for the Relief of Russian Women and Children

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)

International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP)

League for the Protection of Immigrants

Illinois Child Labor Committee

Jane Addams to Julia Clifford Lathrop, June 1911

Jane Addams to Julia Clifford Lathrop, June 20, 1911

Jane Addams to Anna Marcet Haldeman-Julius, May 13, 1918

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Birth Date

1875-01-12

Death Date

1965-09-01

Birthplace

Chicago, IL

Biographical Text

Esther Loeb Kohn was a member of a well-off Jewish family who dedicated her life and career to charity and serving others. She began taking classes at the University of Chicago before she followed her husband to Europe. While abroad, Kohn studied and trained in music and singing at the University of Vienna, as well as in Munich and Paris. Once she returned to the States, she continued at the University of Chicago. Unexpectedly widowed, she became a full-time resident of the Hull-House in 1911. Kohn was responsible for overseeing the settlement's volunteerism efforts, as well as activities for the children of Hull-House, even running a summer camp in Waukegan. She was often the person left in charge when Jane Addams was traveling. Passionate about child welfare, Kohn also spearheaded a trade school exclusively for girls who had been forced to leave school. Kohn fought for child labor laws and was active on the Illinois Child Labor Committee and was appointed to be a delegate for the Conference on Child Welfare at the White House. Kohn was active in serving the Jewish community and, over the course of 1921 to 1941, she served as the director, vice president, and president of the Jewish Social Service Bureau of Jewish Charities. During and following World War II, she joined both the Chicago Committee on Displaced Persons and the American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. At the same time, Kohn, who had attended the Vienna Peace Conference in 1921, was involved in the Committee on War Problems, the Chicago Committee Against Rearming Europe and a longtime member of the International League for Peace and Freedom. After Jane Addams's death in 1935, Kohn became a leader of Hull House, but administrative disagreements caused her to leave the establishment.

Kohn married Alfred D. Kohn in 1894. Kohn died in 1965.