Michigan's First Jewish Settler

Ezekiel Solomon, a native of Berlin, Germany, who had served with the British army, arrived at Michilimackinac in the summer of 1761. He is Michigan’s first known resident of the Jewish faith. Solomon was one of the most active Mackinac fur traders until his death about 1808. He was one of those who narrowly escaped death in the massacre of 1763.

During the Revolutionary War, he and other hard-pressed traders pooled their resources to form a general store. In 1784 he was a member of a committee of eight formed to regulate the Mackinac area trade. Ezekiel Solomon’s business often took him to Montreal where he is believed to have been buried and where he was a member of Canada’s first Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel.