Edward Isaac Ezra (3 January 1883 – 15 December 1921) was a wealthy Jewish businessman, who was the first member of the

Shanghai Municipal Council The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the 1863 merger of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdiction under the terms of ...

who was actually born in China,

Robert Bickers Robert A. Bickers (born 1964) is a British historian of modern China and colonialism. He is currently a professor of history at the University of Bristol. Bickers is the author of six books and editor or co-editor of three more. Biography Born ...

and Christian Henriot, ''New Frontiers: Imperialism's New Communities in East Asia, 1842–1953'' (Manchester University Press ND, 2000):45. and who was at one time "one of the wealthiest foreigners in Shanghai". According to one report, Ezra amassed a vast fortune estimated at from twenty to thirty million dollars primarily through the importation of

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

, and successful real estate investment and management in early twentieth century Shanghai. Ezra was the largest stockholder and the managing director of Shanghai Hotels Ltd., and its major financier, and controlled such hotels as the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai.

Family background

Map showing location of Edward Ezra Road

Edward Isaac Ezra was born in Shanghai, China on 3 January 1883, the oldest of the nine children of Isaac "Ned" Ezra (died 1892), one of the first Jewish merchants in Shanghai. Ezra Road (now Shashi No.2 Road 沙市二路 – between Nanjing East Road and Jiujiang Road) was named after his father and his mother, Flora Abraham (died 1899).Farhi.org
/ref> He was the older brother of Rachel Ezra Levy (born 1884 in Shanghai; married Nissim Simon Levy; died 2 January 1968 in Hong Kong); Ellis Isaac Ezra (born ca. 1885); and twins Isaac Isaac Ezra (born 8 February 1892) and Judah Isaac Ezra (born 8 February 1892); and four other sisters. In 1907 Ezra married Mozelle Robinson Sopher (born 1890 in Shanghai; died August 1979 in Hong Kong), and they had two children, Cecil (born 1908) and Denzil (born 1914).

Business activities

In 1896 The Central Stores Company, which was largely financed by Ezra, took over the Central Hotel (later the

Peace Hotel The Peace Hotel () is a hotel on The Bund in Shanghai, China, which overlooks the surrounding areas. The hotel has two different buildings. The Sassoon House, originally housed the Cathay Hotel and is today the Fairmont Peace Hotel run by Fairmo ...

) on the southern corner of

Nanjing Road Nanjing Road (; Shanghainese: ''Noecin Lu'') is a road in Shanghai, the eastern part of which is the main shopping district of Shanghai. It is one of the world's busiest shopping streets, along with Fifth Avenue, Oxford Street, Orchard Road, T ...

and

the Bund The Bund is a waterfront area and a protected historical district in central Shanghai. The area centers on a section of Zhongshan Road (East Zhongshan Road No.1) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the wester ...

. From 1900 Ezra had diversified his economic activities, adding large-scale real estate investments, construction, and management. Ezra was considered one of Shanghai's major landowners. Ezra "erected – on the land bounded by Nanking, Kiujiang, Szechwan and Kiangse Roads – 1,000,000

tael Tael ( ),"Tael" entry
at the

Astor House Hotel. Ezra was the managing director of Shanghai Hotels Limited from 1907, chairman of the Far Eastern Insurance Company,"Sudden Death of Mr. Edward Ezra", ''North-China Herald'' (17 December 1921):27 (767) chairman of the Shanghai Gas Company, chairman of the China Motors Ltd. Additionally, he held large proprietary interests in, and was president and chairman of, the ''China Press'' and the ''Evening Star'' newspapers. In 1913 Ezra was elected the first president of the Shanghai Opium Combine. At the same time Ezra was leading the legal

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

, he was also organising an illegal underground opium smuggling and distribution network, involving his younger brothers, twins Isaac Isaac Ezra and Judah Isaac Ezra, and some Chinese associates. When it was exposed, Ezra was granted immunity from prosecution by testifying against Paul Yip, his Chinese partner, who received an 18-month prison sentence. US Consul General Sammons handing cheque to E

US Consul General Sammons handing cheque to E

By 1915 Ezra had generated enough wealth to be able to re-sell at the price he had paid for it a choice property in the most desirable part of the

Hongkou District Hongkou (; formerly spelled Hongkew) is a district of Shanghai, forming part of the northern urban core. It has a land area of and a population of 757,498 as of 2020. The district borders Yangpu to the east, Pudong to the southeast, Huangpu ...

on the northern bank of the

Suzhou Creek Suzhou Creek (or Soochow Creek), also called the Wusong (Woosung) River, is a river that passes through the Shanghai city center. It is named after the neighboring city of Suzhou (Soochow), Jiangsu, the predominant settlement in this area prior ...

diagonally across Huangpu Road from the Astor House Hotel, to the United States for their

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a ...

. By 1920 the Astor House Hotel was making a handsome profit under his leadership. In 1917 Ezra purchased ''The China Press'' newspaper from its founder, American journalist

Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard (July 8, 1868, in Missouri – September 7, 1942, in Seattle, Washington) was an American journalist, newspaper editor, founder of the ''China Weekly Review'', author of seven influential books on the Far EastFrenc ...

Social activities

Ezra's relationship to the

Sassoon family The Sassoon family were a wealthy Baghdadi Jews, Baghdadi Jews, Jewish family dynasty, associated with finance, banking, capital markets, the exploration of oil and gas, Judaism, British Conservative Party, Conservative politics, opium trade wit ...

by marriage, as well as his immense wealth, allowed him both social standing and political position. His own home on Joffre Road (now 1209 Huaihai Lu) in the

Shanghai French Concession The Shanghai French Concession was a concessions in China, foreign concession in Shanghai, Republic of China (1912–1949), China from 1849 until 1943. For much of the 20th century, the area covered by the former French Concession remained the ...

was an indicator of his wealth. According to Paul French, "Ezra was extremely rich and lived in considerable style in the Ezra mansion" with "

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

furniture throughout, a ballroom for 150 dancers, a music room to seat an audience of 80 in comfort, and elegantly designed

French windows ''French Windows'' is the third solo album by Irish musician Sonny Condell. It was released in 1999 by Hummingbird Records. Track listing Personnel *Sonny Condell – guitar, vocals *Neil MacColl – electric & acoustic guitars *Simon Edwa ...

giving out on to of gardens." In 1900, Ezra, also a philanthropist, helped organise and fund the Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews, which aimed at restoring

Kaifeng Jews Kaifeng Jews ( zh, t=開封猶太人, p=Kāifēng Yóutàirén; ) are a small community of descendants of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng City, Henan of China. In the early centuries of their settlement, they may have numbered around 2,500 people. Des ...

orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Torah, Written and Oral Torah, Oral, as literally revelation, revealed by God in Ju ...

. Ezra was the president of the Shanghai Zionist Association from its founding in 1903. Ezra was the vice-president of the Jewish Communal organisation of China, and vice-president of the Synagogue. Ezra was an active member and past Master of the Lodge Saltoun in East-Asia, and made his way up to the highest degrees in

freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. Ezra was a member of the Shanghai Club; the

Shanghai Race Club The Shanghai Race Club was a horse racing club located in Shanghai, China. The club was based at the Shanghai Racecourse (), and the two names are often used interchangeably. Originally the Race Committee of the International Recreation Club, the ...

; the Masonic Club; and the Cercle Sportif Francais. From 1912 to 1918, Ezra was one of the nine-member

that administered the

Shanghai International Settlement The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the 1863 merger of the British Concession (Shanghai), British and American Concession (Shanghai), American list of former foreign enclaves in China, enclaves in Shanghai, in which Brit ...

. Despite an obvious conflict of interest in relation to his opium business, Ezra refused to resign from the Council. In 1919 Ezra resigned from public life because of a gambling scandal involving his brother, Judah, who had paid the favourite team to lose in a baseball tournament in 1918.

Death

Ezra died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

at the Shanghai Nursing Home after collapsing in his office at Kiukiang Road about noon on Thursday, 15 December 1921, aged only 38, in abject poverty and isolation, abandoned by his former colleagues. Ezra was buried at the Baikal Road Jewish Cemetery in the

Yangpu District Yangpu () is one of the 16 districts of Shanghai. It is located in the northeastern part of downtown Shanghai, bordering the Huangpu River on the east and south, Hongkou on the west, and Baoshan on the north. The southern part of Yangpu Dist ...

after a service conducted by Rabbi Hirsch. Ezra's premature death accelerated the decline of the family's prestige and wealth.McCabe, 278. According to Douglas Valentine, "Left to their own devices, the degenerate Ezra brothers squandered the family fortune and by the mid-1920s had decided to trafficking in illicit drugs." After 1925 Judah and Isaac both moved to San Francisco, where they were among the first to import

narcotics The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

from Asia to the United States. The Ezra brothers formed a connection with Italian

Mafiosi A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a leve ...

Antone "Black Tony" Parmiagni,

Charles "Lucky" Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano ( ; ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian gangster who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the ...

and

Frank Costello Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. Born in Italy, he moved with his family to the United States as a child. As a youth he joined N ...

, Jewish gangster

Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the dev ...

, and with Ye Ching Ho (Pinyin: Ye Qinghe), also known as Paul Yip (or Paul Yi), an agent of Chiang Kai-shek's

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

and with the approval of Chiang's Nationalist government, "which relied on opium profits for its survival". In May 1933 the Ezra brothers were arrested in California for distributing narcotics on the West Coast of the United States. Despite their guilty pleas and co-operation with authorities in testifying against their confederates, they were fined $12,000 each and were imprisoned for twelve years, thus "bringing their family's fortunes to an abrupt and dramatic conclusion." After their release from prison, the Ezra brothers were deported.Harry Jacob Anslinger and William F. Tompkins, ''Traffic in Narcotics'' (Addiction in America) (Ayer Co., 1981):88.

References

External links

Picture of Edward Ezra in his office

Picture of Edward Ezra's mansion

Article on Edward Ezra Arcade and its re-development
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ezra, Edward Isaac 1883 births 1921 deaths Businesspeople from Shanghai Baghdadi Jews Chinese Jews Chinese Zionists Chinese hoteliers Chinese people of Iraqi-Jewish descent Deaths from intracranial haemorrhage Jewish Chinese history 19th-century Chinese businesspeople 20th-century Chinese businesspeople