Rabbi Henry Cohen

Henry Cohen is also known for saving a Greek Catholic from deportation and banishing Shakespeare’s Shylock from the Galveston public schools. In 1928 Congregation B'nai Israel decided to add a new facility and name it the Henry Cohen Community House.

Rabbi Henry Cohen, who provide a place for thousands of Jewish immigrants now routed through the port of Galveston. 
Cohen was born in England in 1863 and educated in its schools. He was ordained a rabbi in 1884 and accepted his first assignment in Jamaica. In 1885 he moved to Woodville, Mississippi, to serve the Jewish community there, then moved on to Galveston in 1888 to become rabbi of Temple B’nai Israel.  Cohen became a prominent citizen of Galveston and was instrumental in helping the community respond to the destruction of the hurricane which destroyed a great deal of the island’s buildings and took the lives of more than 6,000 of its citizens in 1900. Cohen also served in the American forces in France during WWI and helped with the struggle to make rabbis eligible for appointment as military chaplains. He also served in appointed state offices and on many boards, but Cohen’s work with immigrants is legendary.

In Galveston, Cohen founded the Jewish Immigrant Information Bureau to help relieve the pressure of anti-Semitism on Hester Street. As the flow of Jewish immigrants began to flow through Galveston, Cohen recruited sponsors, usually other Jews, not just in Texas but also throughout the Great Plains of the United States. Many a community enjoyed significant economic development due to the industry and hard work of these new citizens.

And there is this anecdote in Ronald Axelrod’s article on Rabbi Cohen that appeared in the East Texas Historical Journal. A Russian immigrant arrived in Galveston without appropriate admission papers. The man was immediately retained for deportation, until Rabbi Cohen traveled to Washington to petition President William Howard Taft to overrule the regulations. When Taft replied that it was unfair for him to change the rules for one of Cohen’s Jews, the Rabbi told the president that the immigrant was not Jewish but an Orthodox Christian. Cohen had traveled all that way in behalf of someone in need, whether of his faith or not. Rabbi Cohen died in 1952.

The Prophetic History of Galveston Island

Before The Film Production began for "The Winds of Change" much regional prayer and intercession were lifted up to the Lord on High for the surrounding Houston area's as Hurricane Ike approached The Gulf of Mexico on September 12, 2008.  Hurricane Ike was the third-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States. It was the ninth named storm, fifth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. It was a Cape Verde-type hurricane, as it started as a tropical disturbance near Africa at the end of August. On Sept. 1, 2008, it became a tropical storm west of the Cape Verde islands. By the early morning hours of Sept. 4, Ike was a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and a pressure of 935 mbar. That made it the most intense Atlantic storm of 2008. Ike passed over the Turks and Caicos Islands as Category 4, with winds 135 mph on September 7. Moving west along Cuba, it made two landfalls - as a Category 4 hurricane on September 7 and as a Category 1 hurricane two days later. Ike made its final landfall near Galveston, Texas as a strong Category 2 hurricane, on Sept. 13, 2008, at 2:10 a.m. Hurricane-force winds extended 120 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extended far beyond that.

A Prophetic word visited Galveston Island six months before Hurricane Ike was formed in the Atlantic Ocean from Chuck Pierce, Glory of Zion Ministries in Denton Texas, who has prophesied over the  Houston/Galveston area for the past seven years.

Below are portions of Chuck's prophesies:

Chuck Pierce: "I have chosen Houston as the port city where I will rest My presence in the midst of a strange happening in this nation. I will cause My presence to be established in this city. I will cause enemies of My Spirit who have resisted My presence in the past to welcome My presence. I'm going to shake Galveston in a way that it has not been shaken since the beginning of the last century. This is a time for Me to come full circle. Galveston will begin to run forward into My presence in Houston. That which is resisting My presence in Galveston will be overtaken."

"I am raising up the Body in Houston to receive an outpouring of My presence. As I flood the people of Galveston to Houston, I will return them with a flood of My presence. Faith is now your guide. For faith will explode in the very hearts of this city and ten surrounding smaller cities of this area. This will be a faith explosion that will begin to occur because victory has entered Houston and you have gathered to receive a new anointing of grace."

The Winds of Change film documentary also includes a promise of an outpouring and flood of God's presence upon the Houston, Galveston, and Boliver area's.

Chuck's prophetic words mentioning Galveston were quite accurate. "I'm going to shake Galveston in a way that it has not been shaken since the beginning of the last century." This is a direct reference to the Great Storm Hurricane of the year 1900 which took 6,000 lives in Galveston.

In 2008, The Kingdom of God was proclaimed in Galveston with power, and thousands souls were saved and discipled through the disaster relief outreach efforts of TBN, Friendships Ministries, Somebody Cares Houston, and His Global Relief Ministries.            

On February 20, 2005, Chuck Pierce prophetically released this word

“Houston is a target for the enemy because you are a great city, a great port, a great city for revival, and a great city for commerce. You are like Tyre in the Bible. There is a crisis coming toward Houston that will move the city into a different dimension of God’s presence. Houston is going to be a place where My angels are flooding in this year. They are going to flood in and come in through every gate this year. My angels are coming in through the port areas of Houston. Go to every port point this year and invite the angelic forces in. If you will do that over the next ten months, you will see change by the end of the year, all across the city. I am ready for the angels to come in. I have chosen Houston as the port city where I will rest My presence, in the midst of a strange happening in this nation. I will cause My presence to be established in this city. I will cause enemies of My Spirit, who have resisted My presence in the past, to welcome My presence this year.”


“There’s a shift that’s gone on here. You’ve shifted. You are (now) moving from a heavenly realm. You have moved out of a vacuum of unbelief. It wasn’t darkness, but it was a void – something that has been confused, that had no form, that looked like it would remain formless from now until a future time. You’ve moved that out of the atmosphere here. Now, you have brought into the atmosphere, a faith dimension that has restored My covenant back to My people in this city.”


The Lord then said that Houston would shift in July. “Prepare yourself, for you will influence the nation in a time of crisis. You’ve endured the testing of covenant with each other. You’ve watched each other make horrible mistakes, and yet, your covenant with Me and My blood has overcome those mistakes. You have watched some let go of things. You watched some go in wrong directions. But I’ve brought it back full circle.  You have watched certain things end. Don’t judge how they ended; I was ending certain things, so that I can begin again. You have endured a covenant-breaking structure that has resisted My move in this city. You have endured and prevailed against a covenant-breaking spirit that overcame past generations. Now, you have overcome that spirit. Just as Moses made a mistake, and I restored his call, I’ve now come back full circle and said, ‘Now, it’s My Time!’ Follow Me in a new way, confront your enemies in a new way, and move forward in a new way. For I am going to rest in the city, and you will know My Presence has come to rest in this city, faith is now your guide. For faith will explode in the very hearts of this city and ten surrounding, smaller cities of this area. This will be a faith explosion that will begin to occur because victory has entered Houston, and you have gathered to receive a new anointing of grace. Walk forth with Me from this place, for I am dressing you in victory. You are turning upward. And although you do not know where this updraft will take you, ride the wind with Me and the waves will not overtake you. The Lord would say to Houston Do not look around you in your time of need – call for heavenly help! I would say to this nation, You are going to go through three days of tremendous trial. In the midst of the confusion that is going on in this nation, that will be lasting three days, I will make Myself known.’

Chuck D. Pierce