Edgar Bronfman, Sr. - Biography

Edgar Miles Bronfman (born June 20, 1929) is a Canadian businessman. He is a member of the Bronfman family.

Biography

Bronfman is the son of Samuel Bronfman, the founder of Distillers Corporation Limited, who purchased Seagram's in 1928. Other children born to Samuel and his wife, Saidye Bronfman, are the late Minda de Gunzburg, architecture maven Phyllis, and Charles.

Bronfman has been married five times. His first marriage, to Ann Loeb on January 10, 1953, produced five children: Sam Jr., Edgar Jr., Matthew, Holly, and Adam. Edgar and Ann divorced in 1973, and the same year he married Lady Carolyn Townshend, the daughter of the 7th Marquess Townshend. He married his third wife, and divorced her, twice - Rita "Georgiana" Webb. In 1994 he married artist Jan Aronson.

Career

After graduating from McGill University with a B.A. degree and honours in history in 1951, he joined the family business. In 1957 he took over as head of Seagram's American subsidiary. He increased the range of products sold by the company, improved distribution, and expanded the number of countries in which Seagram's products were sold. In 1966 Cemp Investments, which managed the family's investments, bought 820,000 shares of MGM and in 1969 Bronfman took over the chairmanship of MGM, albeit briefly.

Following his father's death in 1971, Bronfman took over as president, treasurer, and director of Distillers Corporation-Seagrams Ltd. His son Edgar Jr. succeeded him as chief executive officer of the company in 1994.

In 1981, Edgar M. Bronfman was elected president of the World Jewish Congress, the federation of Jewish communities outside of Israel. Together with his deputy Israel Singer, Bronfman has led the World Jewish Congress in becoming the pre-eminent international Jewish organization. Through the campaigns to free Soviet Jewry, the exposure of the Nazi past of Austrian president Kurt Waldheim, and the campaign to compensate victims of the Holocaust and their heirs, notably in the case of the Swiss banks, Bronfman became well-known internationally during the 1980s and 1990s.

Bronfman stepped down from that post on May 7, 2007, amidst scandals and turmoil about Israel Singer.

According to Joel Bainerman, in 1991 he was appointed to the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations to conduct official contacts between the Vatican and the State of Israel. Edgar Bronfman Sr., the president of the World Jewish Congress, was accused of “perfidy” when he wrote a letter to President Bush in mid‐2003 urging Bush to pressure Israel to curb construction of its controversial “security fence.”

Philanthropy

Edgar M. Bronfman is also a philanthropist who has given large amounts of money to Jewish causes, including Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, which he is credited with helping revive together with Hillel President Richard Joel in the 1990s. Indeed, the Hillel at New York University is called The Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, known by students just as "Bronfman". Edgar Bronfman established the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel, an elite leadership program for Jewish youth, and is the founder of the website MyJewishLearning.com. His mother has a concert hall named after her in Montreal called the Saidye Bronfman Centre and a building at McGill University is named after his father.

Edgar M. Bronfman is also the President of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation whose work is informed by these four principles: "Jewish renaissance is grounded in Jewish learning, Jewish youth shape the future of the Jewish people, vibrant Jewish communities are open and inclusive, and that all Jews are a single family."

Awards

Bronfman was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Bill Clinton in August 1999 and the Star of People's Friendship by East German leader Erich Honecker in October 1988.

In 2000, he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice.

Books

• Hope, Not Fear: A Path to Jewish Renaissance, Edgar M. Bronfman with Beth Zasloff, St. Martin’s Press, 2008.[1]
• The Third Act: Reinventing Yourself After Retirement, Edgar M. Bronfman with Catherine Whitney, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2002.[2]
• Good Spirits, Edgar M. Bronfman, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998.[3]
• The Making of a Jew, Edgar M. Bronfman, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996.[4]

Notes

See also

• Bronfman family