Ezekiel Hart — Wikippedia

Ezekiel Hart (or Ezekiel Hart ; May 15, 1770 – September 16, 1843 ^{[ first ]} ) was a Jewish Canadian businessman and politician.

Debut [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Son of Aaron Hart, considered the founder of the Jewish community in Canada, member of the British forces, and Dorothea Judah, Ezechiel was born in Trois-Rivières (Quebec, Canada). Its origins are English and Bavarian. He has three brothers: Moses, Benjamin and Alexander (Asher).

Like them, Ezekiel Hart is part of his studies in the United States. As early as 1792, his father associated him with his store on rue du Plato, Trois-Rivières and his activity linked to the furs trade.

The following year, Ezekiel was in New York where he met the one he married in February 1794 , Frances Lazarus, a parent by alliance. “He also takes care of family affairs and is working to settle the succession of an uncle, Henry Hart, who was a merchant in Albany, in New York State” ^{[ first ]} .

Hart Company [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Funded by their father, Hart forms with his brothers Moses and Benjamin, the December 2, 1796 , a company in Trois-Rivières to build a brewery, a malterie, a bakery and to erect a pottery and a pearl, enterprise under the social reason “M. and E. Hart Company”. THE 20 mars 1797 , Hart buys a land on rue Haut-Boc where hops is cultivated for the manufacture of beer, and also land acquired near the river ^{[ first ]} .

While the company M. and E. Hart becomes important, Ezekiel Hart withdrew and sells everything to his brother Moses for the sum of £ 338 6s 8d on a date which seems to have followed the death of Aaron Hart, which in 1800.

Subsequently, Hart imports and exports, holds a general store, and, in addition to the lordship of Bécancour received in inheritance, he acquired important land, mainly in Trois-Rivières and Cap-de-la-Madeleine ^{[ first ]} .

Political commitment and “Hart affair” [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

His political involvement seems to have started in 1804 where a Hart (Moses or Ezekiel?) Fits on an electoral list. “My interest is linked to your interests”, specifies the candidate, who undertakes to fulfill the duties of the charge which he covets “at best of [his] capacities and this in the interest of [his] would natale » ^{[ first ]} .

The Saturday April 11, 1807 , he is elected to the assembly chamber of Bas-Canada and causes, in spite of himself, a controversy because as a Jew, he could not be sworn in the Bible containing the Gospels or pronounce the formula “in the year of Our Lord ”, the British laws not giving the Jews the means to occupy this post. Hart was therefore expelled by a resolution voted by a Catholic Assembly ^{[ 2 ]} .

The incident caused the dissolution of the room and caused a lot of ink to flow. Hart was re -elected in 1808 and sworn “in the Christian way” but the expulsion reproduced with confirmation by the Secretary of State for the Colonies that a Jew could not sit in the Assembly, nor sit down, nor vote ^{[ 3 ] , [ 4 ]} . The April 18 , the newspaper The Canadian (p. 87), spokesperson for the Canadian party, publishes a poem criticizing the choice of a Jew for a seat, finding his appointment even more stupid than that of the Caligula horse as a Roman consul ^{[ 5 ]} .

Fort of Trois-Rivières, around 1750.

Hart then declared that the Catholic priests had probably prompted his opponents to vote against him ^{[ 6 ]} . He then stopped investing in political life and focused on his business activities in Trois-Rivières, where he was a respected man in his community.

“Other members of his direct family had their place in public life. His brother Benjamin was a businessman in Montreal, and his other brother, Moses, was a land speculator in Trois-Rivières. Finally, his cousin Henry Judah became a member of the Legislative Assembly of the province of Canada. »»

His sons pursued the political struggle of their father: Samuel Becancour, Aaron Ezekiel and Adolphus Mardecai Hart will strongly influence the legislation of 1831–1832, by sending a letter to King Guillaume IV, legislation which will recognize the Jews of Bas-Canada the fullness of their civil rights, 27 years before being extended to the entire British Empire ^{[ first ] , [ 7 ]} .

Military career [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Hart also had a military career.

Joining the militia in June 1803 , Ezekiel Hart serves as a lieutenant in the 8 ^{It is} Battalion of Trois-Rivières placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles-Michel d’Irumberry* de Salaberry during the Anglo-American war of 1812 where he was appointed to the rank of Colonel. He then goes to first ^is Trois-Rivières militia battalion of which he became captain in 1816. He will be promoted Colonel du first ^is militia battalion of the county of Saint-Maurice the May 16, 1830 ^{[ first ]} .

Dead [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Commemorative plaque in Ezékiel Hart de Trois-Rivières

When he dictated his last will, the June 20, 1839 , his wife Frances Lazarus had died for 18 years and he bequeathed his property to his children: Samuel Becancour, Aaron Ezekiel, Ira Craig, Adolphus Mordecai, Esther Eliza, Miriam Harriet, Caroline Athalia, Henry, Julia and Abraham Kitzinger ^{[ first ]} .

Hart died on September 16, 1843 in Trois-Rivières at 76. He is buried in the second Jewish cemetery in Trois-Rivières, on a land that he himself gave to this end.

He is entitled to imposing funerals: Trois-Rivières stores close their doors and the (in) 81st infantry regiment pays him the last tributes.

The November 30, 1843 , notaries undertake the inventory of the goods of Ezekiel Hart and Frances Lazarus. He takes them almost three months to go around the property of the house and the store on rue du Plato. It will also take more than three days to draw up a partial list of the books that the Hart library contains. “Often, they just identify a lot of old books. But their statement, for a value of £ 80, covers 17 pages where dictionaries are identified, including a Hebrew-Latin dictionary, a universal history in 23 volumes, the Encyclopaedia Britannica In 17 volumes, works of law, medicine, geography, history, including a history of Jews in two volumes, the laws of Moses, a German Bible, a critical history of the Old Testament, the stories of trip and, of course, treaties on how to brew beer, next to classics like Don Quixote where the Thousand and one Night ” ^{[ first ]} .

In October 1909 , the remains of Ezekiel Hart and other people buried in the Jewish cemetery on the street prison of Trois-Rivières were transferred to Montreal Cemetery Mont-Royal of the Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, when the Jewish cemeteries are closed of Trois-Rivières.

Tributes [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

“Ezekiel Hart was a remarkable character for his time and his environment. Like his father, he had good relations with those around him, with this difference that he has frequented more easily high society. Illustrious travelers stopped at his home. Ezekiel was also a good husband and a good father. To his children, he left, in addition to important property, a refined and neat education which will be transmitted to his descendants ” ^{[ first ]} .

• Hart family documents are held by the company American Jewish Historical Archives In Waltham, Massachusetts, and at the McCord Museum in Montreal, Quebec.
• Château Ramezay owns a portrait of him.
• The Trois-Rivières MP is an act in an act on the life of Ezekiel Hart, written in 1959 by Maxwell Charles Cohen.
• A short film of Heritage Minute which mentions the Hart affair was broadcast in the 1990s.
• In 2002, a commemorative plaque was erected in Ezekiel Hart by the Council of Place and Historic Monuments of Canada. Another plaque is awarded to him at Trois-Rivières heritage .
• A street of Trois-Rivières is appointed for him (rue Hart).