Former Senator Hugh Hart Remembered for Kindness and Jamaica's Jewish Heritage

On Thursday, April 16, I received word that Hugh C.E. Hart — former senator and government minister — had died at the age of 96. We first crossed paths in 2018, and my affection for him deepened quickly. Before each Jewish holiday, I made a habit of stopping by to see him. We would sit together, wrap Tefillin during prayer, and he would ask me question after question about Judaism. In turn, he offered guidance shaped by the wisdom he had gathered across a long life. What stood out most was his kindness, his curiosity, and a warmth that made every meeting a joy.

Over the years of our friendship, I learned how Hugh belonged to some of Jamaica's oldest and most prominent Jewish families — the Harts, the deCordovas, and the Delgados — each of which left a lasting mark on the nation's history. His great-great-grandfather was Joshua deCordova, who helped establish The Gleaner in 1834, and he was a distant relative of Moses Delgado, the leading nineteenth-century businessman who secured civil rights for Jamaica's Jews. The many tributes pouring in since his passing speak to a record of wide-ranging achievement, and also to the humble, genuinely caring man behind the public profile.

Jewish tradition holds that character is shown not only in what we do when duty calls, but in what we do when nothing demands it. The Ethics of the Fathers, a well-known text of Jewish wisdom, asks: "Who is wise? One who learns from every person." Hugh personified that teaching. Here was a man who had moved in the highest halls of power, yet listened to a young rabbi with openness and real interest.

A recent Torah reading included the well-known verse from Leviticus 19:18: "Love your neighbor as yourself," a cornerstone of Jewish teaching. But the passage does not end there. The full line reads: "Love your Fellow as yourself, I am the Lord." Commentators across the ages have asked why those final words appear. Classical explanations treat commandments such as not bearing a grudge or not harbouring hatred in the heart as inward acts no human court can observe or punish. "I am G-d" serves as a reminder that what happens within us also has a witness. Yet Chasidic interpretation, as taught by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory, reads the verse not as a command followed by a divine signature, but as one continuous statement: "Love your Fellow as yourself, I am G-d [which exists within both of you]." In that reading, our ability to love another as ourselves does not rest on willpower or temperament alone. It comes from recognising that both people share membership in a larger divine whole — the same G-d present in you is present in the person before you.

When I sat with Hugh, he did not quote scripture. Yet whether he was facing a head of government or a rabbi visiting ahead of a holiday, he lived out that principle. His warmth and attention grew from seeing a shared humanity and divinity in everyone he met. He offered the same focus, the same curiosity, the same care regardless of rank or background. That is a lesson anyone can take from my friend Hugh. It matters little whether you are in conversation or in business. When you encounter someone, recognise the divine essence within them. In doing so, you fulfil the mitzvah to "love your neighbor as yourself." After ninety-six years of negotiating with presidents, prime ministers, and society's leading figures, he never stopped seeing the person in front of him.

Hugh will be remembered for his humility, kindness, generosity, and curiosity. He once asked me what Jewish tradition teaches about what happens after death. I told him that the good a person does cannot be erased and remains in the world long after they are gone. In Jamaica and across the Caribbean, his legacy will endure for a very long time. May his memory be for a blessing.