Steve Cozen is a Jewish American success story. He founded the Cozen O’Connor Law Firm and built it into a national entity with more than 850 lawyers and 32 offices.
These are the types of stories that the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History likes to tell. So, it’s perhaps not surprising that Cozen supports the museum. Cozen O’Connor and Sandra and Steve Cozen are listed as presenting hosts for the Weitzman’s June 6 gala at the Philadelphia Marriott.
That means they both contributed more than $150,000.
For his support, the lifelong Philadelphian will receive the inaugural Only in America Humanitarian Award.
“It’s a little overwhelming,” Cozen said.
The 84-year-old talked about how deep his Jewish and American identities run.
Jewish
Cozen’s parents emphasized Jewish values, especially l’dor v’dor, according to the Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley member.
The future lawyer went to Hebrew school, got confirmed and even dreamed of becoming a hazzan. He also sat for Shabbat dinner with his family and attended holiday services with his father and grandfathers in South and West Philadelphia.
“We loved and enjoyed the liturgy,” he said.
Cozen and his wife have three daughters and seven grandchildren. Cozen said the family sits for Shabbat dinner more often than they did during his childhood.
“Our tradition has gotten stronger,” he said.
Outside the home, the lawyer serves on the boards for the Weitzman and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.
“It’s giving back without expectation,” Cozen said. You do these things because you recognize and realize that relationships are the most important thing in life.”
American
Here’s Cozen in his own words on America:
“The Jewish people have been unable to assimilate into any society for 3,000 years. In America, we were able to assimilate to a degree. And we were also able to realize the benefits of freedom.”
Cozen himself has realized those benefits with the growth of his law firm.
“Could I have done that in some other country? I doubt it,” he said.
He has also participated in what he describes as “the mechanisms that run our society.” The lawyer serves on the Kimmel Center’s president’s council and on the board for the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School. He made a gift to Penn Law that established the Stephen A. Cozen Professorship of Law.
America gave him the opportunity to “hopefully add some good works to our society,” he said.
“I’m eternally grateful for that,” he added.
Cozen believes the “Only in America” motto, the title of the gala, is “what the museum is all about.”
“It’s making it clear that the Jewish people in America have made tremendous inroads to assimilation and success which they could only have done in America, and every other ethnic group has that same ability and right to do it,” he said.
That’s why Cozen is motivated to support the museum. He believes in a specific vision for the Weitzman’s future.
“It’s a vision which is based on three strategic pillars: combating antisemitism, becoming a national and local center for Jewish life and culture and presenting a reimagined core exhibition,” he said.
The museum filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and had to close due to COVID. Since then, it has gotten financial and political support from shoe designer Stuart Weitzman (its namesake), U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Cozen, among others. There are more than 200 donors who pledged at least $1,000 listed on the museum’s gala invitation.
At the same time, the museum’s leaders and backers are still trying to figure out how to get people back in for visits. Cozen wants to see a combination of school field trips, tourist trips and big events such as the 2023 talk by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who led his Colleyville, Texas, congregation through a 2022 hostage crisis.
“We’ve gotten hundreds and hundreds of people to attend those events,” Cozen said. “It’s giving a constant stream of Judaism for learning to the community.”