Birth of the Canadian Jewish community
Aaron Hart, Artist unknown. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, P1000, S4, D83, PH12
1759 to 1760
Jewish immigration was banned during the French regime, which allowed only Catholics to settle in the colony. The first Jews known to settle in Canada were the businessmen Samuel Jacobs and Aaron Hart. Both were commissaries attached to the British Army during the British conquest of New France of 1760. Both settled in the new province of Quebec and prospered. Hart had four sons, Moses, Benjamin, Ezekiel and Alexander, who helped found the Jewish community in Montréal, where the first synagogue, Shearith Israel, was established in 1768.
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