Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
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Edgar Miles Bronfman (born June 20, 1929) is a Jewish-Canadian businessman and a member of the Bronfman dynasty, and the father of Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
He is the son of Samuel Bronfman the founder of Distillers Corporation Limited who purchased Seagram's in 1928. After graduating from McGill University with a B.A. degree and honors 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 Seagrams 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.
Edgar is the son of Samuel and Saidye Bronfman; his siblings are the late Minda de Gunzburg, architecture maven Phyllis, and Charles. He 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.
In 1994 he married artist Jan Aronson.
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 preeminent international Jewish organization. Through the campaigns to free Soviet Jewry, the exposing 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.
Edgar 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 1990's. 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.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.
