Hans Kohn

Who was Hans Kohn?

Hans Kohn was a Jewish American philosopher and historian. Born in Prague during the Habsburg Empire, he was captured as a prisoner of war during World War I and held in Russia for five years. In the following years he lived in Paris and London working for Zionist organizations and writing.

He moved to Palestine in 1925, but visited the United States frequently, eventually immigrating in 1934 to teach modern history at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. From 1948 to 1961 he taught at City College of New York. He also taught at the New School for Social Research, Harvard Summer School.

He wrote numerous books and publications, primarily on the topics of nationalism, Pan-Slavism, German thought, and Judaism, and was an early contributor to the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, where he died.

Kohn was a prominent leader of Brit Shalom, which promoted a bi-national state in Palestine.