Evelyn M. Cohen is an American art historian.
Cohen is an expert in the art of medieval Jewish manuscripts.[1]
Cohen was responsible for reuniting the two halves of the oldest dated Jewish manuscript from the German lands. While working in an archive, she recognized that the partial manuscript of a Jewish holiday prayer book that she was examining was the other half of a prayer book that she had examined in another archive.[2] The manuscript was the personal prayer book of Qalonimos ben Yehuda dated 28 Tevet, 5050 (January 12, 1290), Esslingen am Neckar.[2]
Cohen is noted particularly for her work on the role of Jewish women in commissioning, owning and using books in the medieval period and Renaissance.[1] She has recovered and describes several prayer books written in the feminine voice, including some that feature, among the blessings that begin the morning prayer, the blessing " "Blessed are you God, master of the universe, that You have made me a woman and not a man."[1]
Other manuscripts that Cohen has studied feature women in the illuminations.[1]
Cohen received the 1985 National Jewish Book Award in the Visual Arts category for her book on the Rothschild Maḥzor of 1492 co-authored with Menachem Schmelzer.[3]
Cohen is the daughter of Haskell Cohen, the former Publicity Director of the NBA.