Cohen, Joseph Wolfe (1780–1869), president of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation, was born September 1780 in Poznan, Poland (soon to become a Prussian possession as ‘Posen’). After living in Birmingham, he settled in Dublin c.1819. One of the principal founders of the revived Jewish congregation in Dublin, in 1822 he adapted part of his house at 40 Stafford St. (later Wolfe Tone St.), and offered it free of rent, for divine worship, lending a scroll of the law and becoming president of the synagogue (1822, 1835–40). He was one of three trustees and a signatory to the deeds of conveyance (1836) and freehold (1853), when the Dublin Hebrew Congregation purchased its new premises in Mary's Abbey, Dublin, and a member of the committee that ratified the constitution of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation in 1839. A prominent jeweller and silversmith, he registered with the Dublin Goldsmiths’ Company (1827) under J. & W. Cohen and later in partnership with his brother Solomon, under J. W. & S. Cohen, as wholesale jewellers.
In 1867 he moved to Newport, Wales, to live with his youngest daughter, Eveline, and son-in-law, Joseph Isaac, who had served as vice-president of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation in 1861. He died 7 August 1869 in Newport. He married Rebecca Lazarus (d. 1844) from Birmingham; their three sons and six daughters were all born in Dublin. His grandson Selim Meyer Salaman (b. 1843) was the first Jew to qualify in medicine at TCD, graduating BA (1865), MB, and M.Chir. (1866), and was among the first Jews to join the Indian medical service (1869).