August 28, 2013

Jaime Hazan-Cohen

Jaime Hazan-Cohen was born in Havana, Cuba, into a Sephardic Jewish family. His father was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and came to the Americas around 1921, while his mother was born in Cuba. The family lived a religious life in what had been a Jewish section of Old Havana, part of a community of roughly 10,000 Jews, most of them Orthodox. Jaime recalled experiencing anti-Semitism as a child, including being called polacos and having to remove his kippah when leaving his Jewish day school. Opposed to the Castro regime from the beginning, the family decided to leave; Jaime departed in October 1960, the day before his brother was arrested and imprisoned for four and a half years.

Jaime first came to Florida and was then relocated to Dallas by a Jewish relief service. He was followed by his father, and later by his mother, brother, and sisters. He has lived in Dallas for 53 years. He met his wife in Dallas at a party at a Jewish center, introduced through his sister; the two families had Sephardic ties in Cuba. They married after about a year and raised two children, a son who became an attorney and a daughter who became a financial advisor. They have three grandchildren.

Having reached his third year of law school in Havana before leaving Cuba, Jaime rebuilt his career in Dallas. He first worked for the Glazer family business, and Max Glazer paid for him to attend Southern Methodist University while he worked at the local Pepsi-Cola bottling operation, eventually becoming controller. After graduating he worked for a local CPA firm and for Price Waterhouse, then with his brother and father ran a wholesale textile business for 28 years. In retirement he took up forensic and consulting accounting work. Deeply involved in Jewish life, he served on the boards of Congregation Shearith Israel and Akiba Academy, supported ZOA, and belonged to a Chabad in Plano, while his wife held leadership roles in many organizations.

Read Full Transcript