Zaki Cohen (Arabic: زكي كوهن) born in 1829 in Aleppo in the Ottoman Empire, was a Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in Beirut, Lebanon and a playwright.
[1] In 1874, he founded Beirut's first modern Jewish school,[2] called Tiferet Yisrael ("Glory of Israel") in Hebrew and al-Madrasa al-Waṭaniyya al-Isrāʾīliyya ("The National Jewish School") in Arabic, where he served as director.
[3] The school continued to operate until 1899, when it was superseded by College Alliance Israelite Universelle of Beirut.
Cohen and his son Selim were among the leading Jewish playwrights active in Beirut in the late nineteenth century.
[4] At his school, Tiferet Yisrael, theatre was encouraged and two plays a year were normally staged.