[citation needed] During his time in the Stock Exchange, Cohen's financial ability was shown by his services in connection with the Turkish debt, which earned for him a nomination to the Order of the Medjidie.

[2] During his short tenure of his position he served with distinction on the royal commissions on the depression in trade, on gold and silver, and on endowed schools.

On entering public life he found the three city synagogues and various societies administering charitable relief in a chaotic and unscientific manner, and took a notable part in the efforts made to remedy it.

In 1859, when the synagogue vestries agreed, on the motion of Ephraim Alex, overseer of the poor, to delegate their powers to a specially constituted board of guardians, Cohen became its honorary secretary.

He presided over the first meeting of its council, of which he was elected a vice-president, and was the ruling spirit and mastermind of the organisation, which during his lifetime grew into a corporation of eleven metropolitan congregations and the most influential body of its kind in the British empire.