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Edgar Bronfman Biography & Facts

Edgar Miles Bronfman (June 20, 1929 – December 21, 2013) was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman is especially remembered for initiating diplomacy with the Soviet Union, which resulted in legitimizing the Hebrew language in the USSR, and contributed to Soviet Jews being legally able to practice their religion, as well as immigrate to Israel. Biography Bronfman was born into the Jewish-Canadian Bronfman family in Montreal, the son of Samuel Bronfman, a Russian who had immigrated to Canada with his parents, and Saidye Rosner Bronfman, a native of Manitoba born to Eastern European immigrants. They raised their four children in Montreal. In 1925, Sam and his brother, Allan, built the family's first liquor distillery near Montreal. They later bought a distillery owned by the Seagram family and incorporated the name. The U.S. subsidiary of the Seagram Company Ltd. opened in 1933; Edgar Bronfman would later take charge of the subsidiary. Bronfman had two older sisters: architect Phyllis Lambert, and Minda de Gunzburg, who married Baron Alain de Gunzburg (1925–2004), a great grandson of Joseph Günzburg. Bronfman also had a younger brother, Charles Bronfman. The Bronfmans "kept a kosher home, and the children received religious schooling on weekends. During the week, Edgar and Charles were among a handful of Jews sent to private Anglophone schools, where they attended chapel and ate pork." Bronfman attended Selwyn House School in Montreal, and Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. He next attended Williams College, then transferred to McGill University, where he graduated in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in commerce. Career Seagram After graduating from McGill University with a B.A. degree, in 1951, he joined the family business, where he worked as an accounting clerk and apprentice taster. In 1953, he took over as head of the Seagram U.S. subsidiary, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. 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-Seagram Ltd. His son, Edgar Jr., succeeded him as chief executive officer of the company in 1994. World Jewish Congress When former World Jewish Congress president Philip Klutznick stepped down in 1979, Bronfman was asked to take over as acting head of the organization, then was formally elected president by the Seventh Plenary Assembly, in January 1981. Together with his deputy, Israel Singer, Bronfman led the World Jewish Congress. Initiatives such as those seeking to help free Soviet Jewry; to expose Austrian president Kurt Waldheim's Nazi past; and to help victims of the Holocaust and their heirs to acquire compensation (including by Swiss banks) raised Bronfman's international profile during the 1980s and 1990s. Initiatives Soviet Jewry In 1983, Bronfman suggested that "American Jews should abandon their strongest weapon, the Jackson–Vanik amendment, as a sign of goodwill that challenges the Soviets to respond in kind.": 458  After Mikhail Gorbachev's ascension in 1985, Bronfman's New York Times message began to resonate with the public. In early 1985, Bronfman secured an invitation to the Kremlin and on September 8–11, visited Moscow, becoming the first World Jewish Congress President to be formally received in Moscow by Soviet Officials. Carrying a note from Shimon Peres, Bronfman met with Gorbachev, and initiated talks of a Soviet Jewish airlift. It is said that Peres' note called on the Soviet Union to resume diplomatic relations with Israel.: 457  In a Washington Post profile a few months after the September trip, Bronfman laid out what he thought had been accomplished during his September meetings. He said, "There's going to be a buildup of pressure through the business community. The Russians know the Soviet Jewry issue is tied to trade ... My guess is that over a period of time, five to ten years, some of our goals will be achieved." Author Gal Beckerman says in his When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone, "Bronfman had a business man's understanding of the Soviet Jewish issue. It was all a matter of negotiation, of calculating what the Russians really wanted and leveraging that against emigration.": 458  In March 1987, Bronfman, along with fellow delegates of the World Jewish Congress, flew to Moscow once again. Bronfman held three days of discussions with senior Soviet officials. Together, Bronfman and the World Jewish Congress delegates advocated for the freeing of the Jews living under Soviet rule. On June 25, 1982, Bronfman became the first representative of a Jewish organization to speak before the United Nations. Speaking before the Special Session on Disarmament, Bronfman said, "world peace cannot tolerate the denial of the legitimacy of Israel or any other nation-state ... [and the] charge that Zionism is racism is an abomination." Bronfman's goals for the visit were threefold. In his book, The Making of a Jew, he explained: first, he called for the release of all so-called Prisoners of Zion, the Jews imprisoned for expressing a desire to emigrate to Israel. Bronfman also wanted freedom for Jews in the Soviet Union to practice their religion. Finally, he called for the freedom for Soviet Jews to learn Hebrew, which was forbidden at the time. A year later, in 1988, Bronfman returned to Moscow to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. This trip resulted in the Soviets promising to legalize the teaching of Hebrew in the Soviet Union and to establish a Jewish cultural center in Moscow. Bronfman said of this visit, "By their actions, they are indicating that they are eager to get the question of Jewish rights and emigration off the bargaining table. And it is actions, rather than simply words, that count." Kurt Waldheim In 1986, during Bronfman's presidency, the World Jewish Congress accused Austrian president Kurt Waldheim of covering up his past connections to the Nazi Party. It was when Waldheim became a candidate for president of Austria that the World Jewish Congress first published material showing Waldheim's active duty in the German army during wartime. This evidence was later used to prove that Waldheim must have known about the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, though Waldheim's service as an Austrian in the German army cannot itself be considered a war crime. Waldheim had served as an intelligence officer in a unit of the army that participated in the transfer of Greek Jews to death camps. The allegations against Waldheim resulte.... Discover the Edgar Bronfman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Edgar Bronfman books.