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 merger in the year 1863 of the British Concession (Shanghai), British and American Concession (Shanghai), American list of former foreign enclaves in China, enclaves in Shanghai, i ...

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 (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

, 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 Fairmon ...

) on the southern corner of

Nanjing Road Nanjing Road (; Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified ...

and

the Bund The Bund or Waitan (, Shanghainese romanization: ''Nga3thae1'', , ) 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 Shang ...

. 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 collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

, 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 , formerly spelled Hongkew, is a District of the People's Republic of China, district of Shanghai, forming part of the northern urban core. It has a land area of and a population of 852,476 as of 2010. It is the location of the Astor House, Sh ...

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 diplomatic 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 coun ...

. 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 (born July 8, 1868, in Missouri; died 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 Eas ...

Social activities

Ezra's relationship to the

Sassoon family The Sassoon family, known as "Rothschilds of the East" due to the immense wealth they accumulated in finance and trade, are a family of Baghdadi Jewish descent. Originally based in Baghdad, Iraq, they later moved to Bombay, India, and then emig ...

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; ; Shanghainese pronunciation: ''Zånhae Fah Tsuka'', group=lower-alpha was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1943, which progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Th ...

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 (french: le Bien-Aimé), 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 reache ...

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

French windows A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materi ...

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 The Kaifeng Jews ( zh, t=開封猶太族, p=Kāifēng Yóutàizú; he, יהדות קאיפנג ''Yahădūt Qāʾyfeng'') are members of a small community of descendants of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China. In the early ...

orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

. 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 or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. 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 merger in the year 1863 of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British subjects and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdiction ...

. 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 cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

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 District is one of the 16 districts of Shanghai. It is located in northeastern part of downtown Shanghai, bordering the Huangpu River on the east and south, Hongkou District on the west, and Baoshan District, Shanghai, Baoshan District on ...

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'', "to 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 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 level of organization and r ...

Antone "Black Tony" Parmiagni,

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

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. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...

, 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 Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...

, and with Ye Ching Ho (Pinyin: Ye Qinghe), also known as Paul Yip (or Paul Yi), an agent of

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

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 Jewish Chinese history 19th-century Chinese businesspeople 20th-century Chinese businesspeople