The Jewish people have lost one of their best friends. Last Saturday, billionaire businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr. died at his home in New York at 84. He helped build the family business, Seagram’s liquor, into a worldwide mega-corporation. But he used his money, power and influence to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate, and to track down wealth stolen from Jews by the Nazis and return it to their rightful heirs. Under Bronfman’s leadership, the World Jewish Congress recovered $11 billion in restitution for Holocaust survivors. A recipient of the presidential Medal of Freedom, Bronfman was described as the first of his kind: an industrial tycoon who fully dedicated his life to advancing and encouraging the Jewish people. He was also an example of that rarest of species: a billionaire mensch.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Dec 2013 16:05:38 +0000