Filled with original documents and vintage illustrations, this history chronicles the lives of the Hart family—a Jewish family who settled in predominantly Catholic Trois-Rivières, Quebec, in 1761. Following Aaron Hart and his descendants for a century, this account not only bares the Jewish struggle for equality and freedom, but also delineates the contributions made by the various family members—including the passing of the Jewish Emancipation Act in 1832 and the creation of the Hart Memorial Trophy for the National Hockey League’s Most Valuable Player. A fascinating and comprehensive read, this book breaks new ground in its examination of the Jewish experience in North America.

Denis Vaugeois is a historian and publisher and author of many books on North American and European history and how they converge and diverge. He has studied Jewish history for more than 50 years. He was Quebec’s minister of cultural affairs in the late 1970s. Käthe Roth is a Montreal editor and translator who has worked with Denis Vaugeois on history books for fifteen years.

Denis Vaugeois' profile page

Kathe Roth was born in Montréal and now lives in Saint-Lazare, Québec. She has been a literary translator and editor for more than twenty-five years. Her work includes over thirty translated books and essays of literary non-fiction on various subjects, including art, architecture, economics, history, and sociology, as well as fiction. She was a finalist for the Governor General Award for literary translation in 1993 for “The Last Cod Fish” by Pol Chantraine. She is a member of the Literary Translators Association of Canada.

Käthe Roth's profile page

"The saga of the Hart family . . . marks a milestone in the worldwide struggle for Jewish emancipation. . . . Vaugeois's fascinating account, amply illustrated by archival documents, is a valuable contribution to the history of Quebec, Canada and minority-majority relations."  —www.MontrealGazette.com