Samuel William Jacobs

Samuel William Jacobs, , (May 6, 1871 – August 21, 1938) was a Canadian lawyer, Member of Parliament and a leader of the Canadian Jewish community. For many years he was the only Jewish MP in the House of Commons of Canada.

Biography Jacobs graduated from McGill University with a law degree in 1893 and went on to earn a Masters of Law from Laval University in Montreal In 1897 Jacobs, Lyon Cohen, and several others founded the Jewish Times; the first English language Jewish newspaper in Canada.

As a lawyer, Jacobs took on several notable civil rights cases including the Pinsler case which dealt with Jewish educational rights and the Plamondon case dealing with the aftermath of an antisemitic speech by Joseph Plamondon in 1910 in Quebec City that resulted in Jewish shopkeepers being attacked. In the 1917 federal election, Jacobs was recruited by the Liberal Party to run in the newly created Cartier riding which had a large Jewish population (though never a majority). and introduced a requirement that by-elections be called to fill a vacant parliamentary seat within six months of the vacancy occurring. In 1931 his Act to remove the necessity of the re-election of Members of the House of Commons of Canada on acceptance of office (Bill 35) ended the practice of newly appointed Cabinet ministers being required to resign and recontest their seats in the House of Commons through a by-election.

Jacobs advocated free immigration to Canada stating that free immigration is the solution to Canada's economic problems. He further stated that Canada should take advantage of the fact that the United States limited immigration and attract the best type of all classes of immigrants.

With the rise of Adolf Hitler in Europe, growing anti-Semitism and a mounting Jewish refugee crisis, the Canadian Jewish Congress was revived in 1934 after several decades of inactivity. Jacobs was elected the reconvened Congress' first president and remained the CJC's leader until his death four years later.

Archives There is a Samuel William Jacob fonds (reference number R4654) at Library and Archives Canada.