Bronfman family

The Bronfman family is one of the most influential Jewish families in the world. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman (1889-1971), who made a fortune in the alcoholic distilled beverage business during the 20th century through the family's Seagram Company. The family is of Russian Jewish heritage. Most of its members are Canadian subjects, most of whom are based in Montreal and New York City.

Members of the Bronfman family

* Ekiel Bronfman
o Abe Bronfman (1882–1968)
o Harry Bronfman (1886–1963)
o Laura Bronfman
o Samuel Bronfman (1891–1971); married to Saidye Rosner Bronfman (1896–1995)
+ Aileen Mindel "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzburg (b.1925 - d. 1986)
# Jean de Gunzburg
# Charles de Gunzburg
+ Phyllis Lambert (b. 1927)
+ Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (b. 1929)
# Edgar Bronfman, Jr. (b. 1955)
# Samuel Bronfman II (b. 1954)
+ Charles Bronfman (b. 1931); married to (2) Andrea Bronfman (1945–2006)
# Stephen Bronfman; married to Claudine Blondin
# Ellen Bronfman Hauptman
o Jean Bronfman
o Bessie Bronfman
o Allan Bronfman (1895–1980)
+ Edward Bronfman (1927–2005)
+ Peter Bronfman (1929–1996)
# Bruce Bronfman (b.1952)

*
o Rose Bronfman

New York/New Jersey/Conn Bronfman Family:

Barnett Bronfman/Beckie Bronfman

Nathan Bronfman/Lillian Bronfman

Bart Bronfman

*
o David; Natalie; Meredith; Aaron


Samuel Bronfman

Samuel Bronfman, CC (February 27, 1889 – July 10, 1971) founded Distillers Corporation Limited and a Canadian family dynasty, the Bronfman family. His father grew tobacco and was a grist mill owner in Imperial Russia. His surname, coincidentally, means "liquor man" in Yiddish.

Early Life

Born in Soroki, Bessarabia, then part of Imperial Russia but now in Moldova, Samuel was one of eight children of Mindel and Yechiel Bronfman. He and his parents were Jewish refugees of Czarist Russia's anti-Semitic pogroms who immigrated to Wapella, Saskatchewan -- soon moving to Brandon, Manitoba. A wealthy family, they were accompanied by their rabbi and two servants. Soon Yechiel learned that tobacco farming, which had made him a wealthy man in his homeland, was incompatible with the cold Canadian climate. Yechiel was forced to work as a laborer for the Canadian Northern Railway and after a short time moved to a better job in a sawmill. Yechiel and his sons then started making a good living selling firewood and began a trade in frozen whitefish to earn a winter income. Eventually they turned to trading horses, a venture through which they became involved in the hotel and bar business.

In 1903, the family bought a hotel business, and Samuel, noting that much of the profit was in alcoholic beverages, set up shop as a distributor, founding the Distillers Corporation in Montreal in 1924, specializing in cheap whiskey, and concurrently taking advantage of the U.S. prohibition on alcoholic beverages. The Bronfmans found great success bootlegging to the northern cities of the U.S. such as Boston and Chicago during the Prohibition era, while operating from the perimeters of Montreal, Quebec where alcohol production was still legal.


His empire

Bronfman's Distillers Corporation acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons of Waterloo, Ontario, from the heirs of Joseph Seagram in 1928. Bronfman eventually built an empire based on the appeal of brand names developed previously by Seagram - including Calvert, Dewars, and Seven Crown - to higher level consumers. His sales were boosted during the United States' abortive experiment with prohibition, and he was apparently able to do so while staying within the confines of both Canadian law where prohibition laws had been previously repealed and American law, while dealing with unsavory characters such as the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone.

His company, Seagram Co. Ltd., became an international distributor of alcoholic beverages, and a diversified conglomerate which included an entertainment branch.

Because of changes to US tax law in the Lyndon Johnson administration it became advantageous for Bronfman to purchase an oil company which he did with the purchase of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company in 1963 for $50 million. In 1980, the Bronfman heirs sold the Texas Pacific Oil holdings to Sun Oil Co. for $2.3 billion.

The Seagram assets have since been acquired by other companies, notably General Electric, PepsiCo, Diageo, and Pernod Ricard.