Hirsch is a hamlet in the RM of Coalfields in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

and is located about 18 miles east of the city of

Estevan Estevan is the eighth-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is approximately north of the Canada–United States border. The Souris River runs by the city. This city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Estevan No. 5. History The ...

along Highway 18. The post office originally opened on 1 December 1893 with the town misspelled as "Hirsh". It closed on 31 March 1970.

History

Hirsch was founded in May 1892 by

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

settlers as part of the activities of the Baron Maurice de Hirsch Foundation and the

Jewish Colonization Association The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA, Yiddish ייִק"אַ), in America spelled Jewish Colonization Association, is an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigratio ...

(JCA). It was the first settlement of the JCA and was named after the founder of the foundation, one of the most important Jewish philanthropists of the 19th century. In Hebrew religion and custom, the dead of the community are afforded great respect and a proper cemetery must be built before other needs are attended to. Therefore, even before the first

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

was built, the early settlers were setting aside land for a cemetery. A colonist, Mr. Blank, paced off an acre of his

quarter section In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a section is an area nominally , containing , with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid. The legal description of a tract of land under the PLSS incl ...

for a cemetery. Almost ninety years after the first settlers arrived, descendants, neighbours, and friends of the Hirsch Colonists attended the consecration and designation of the Hirsch Cemetery as a Saskatchewan historic site. The Hirsch Jewish Cemetery can be found along Highway 18, just west of Hirsch. The original synagogue still exists but has been converted into a home. During the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...

crisis of the 1930s, most Jewish families left Hirsch and moved to nearby

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

. The place is best known for the autobiography of Mrs. Zellickson (also: Zelickson), first name unknown, who immigrated in 1891 and wrote extensively about life on the prairies in 1925, especially about the role of women in it. In 1925 she responded to a discussion in the magazine Nor'-West Farmer on the topic of what a woman's work was worth.

References

External links

* * {{Coord, 49, 10, 38, N, 102, 35, 34, W, type:city_region:CA-SK, display=title Hamlets in Saskatchewan Division No. 1, Saskatchewan

History

See also

References

External links