قينة

Jacob HaCohen (November 9, 1872 - May 8, 1914) was a Jewish Tunisian journalist, writer, poet, translator, educator and musician.

He was born in Tunis in 1872. He studied in a traditional Talmūd Torah school until the age of 13. Then he continued his secondary studies in a French high school in Tunis.

He began working as a journalist by founding a weekly newspaper called Al-Nasr("Victory") which was published under his direction for two years. When he was requested to pay a large deposit to the French government in order to continue publishing the newspaper, he decided to close it and teamed up with his colleague, journalist Tzemach Halevi, and together they founded a newspaper called Naser al-Muẖayarīn.

Alongside his work as a journalist, he was a French teacher at the school of the Friends of All Israel in Tunis (1892-1897). In 1896, he married Thiriz Al-H̱ūrī. Two years later, he worked in his father-in-law's trading company, and also obtained advanced degrees in accounting and Arabic studies. In 1898, he resumed his work as a teacher at the Alliance Israélite Universelle school and for three years he also worked as a translator for the French government.

In 1904, he founded an important weekly newspaper in Judeo-Arabic called Al-Šams (The Sun), of which 41 issues were published. He then closed the weekly and founded in its place a daily newspaper called Al-Sbāḥ, which was published under his direction for the next 10 years, until his death in 1914.

During his life he wrote a French-Hebrew dictionary and two textbooks (Hebrew, a learner's handbook and a textbook on Arabic grammar), but he died before they were published.

During his lifetime he wrote a French-Hebrew dictionary and two textbooks (a pedagogical book for the Hebrew language and a textbook on the grammar of the Arabic language), but he died before they were published. He was a lover of music and poetry. He played the violin and the piano, and was a friend of famous musicians in Tunisia such as "Falo Al Kabir" (bayat singer), Nasim Javai, Asher Mizrahi (Jewish poet, composer and singer from Jerusalem) and Meridach Salama. HaCohen composed a number of musical works.

For his various cultural achievements, he received the Nišān Iftiẖār medal of honor from the Tunisian government in 1906.