By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Although he now says that his own life is very content, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., former CEO of Distillers Corporation-Seagrams Ltd. and member of the Canadian Bronfman family dynasty, told a capacity crowd at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond that he doesn’t feel half as good about the state of Judaism in America today.
Bronfman, the 75-year-old president of the World Jewish Congress and the chairman of Hillel worldwide, who has been lauded for recovering nearly $2 billion dollars of Jewish money stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust, told Microsoft tech-mavens and members of the Jewish community that American Jews need to do better — and fast.
“There’s a crisis growing in the American Jewish world and most people aren’t aware of it,” said Bronfman, who spoke non-stop for nearly an hour about all things Jewish, pausing only briefly to change topics.
“Ignorance and apathy are our two biggest enemies,” said Bronfman. “We have to get back in touch with our roots, religion and philosophy. We ought to get as many Jews as we can to identify as Jews, not to be Talmudic scholars, but to know something.”
Speaking passionately about intermarriage, Bronfman told the crowd of more than 200 that it’s a fact of life. Most Jews, said Bronfman, who marry non-Jews do so because they are not in touch with their own heritage and the non-Jewish partner usually has the passion for Judaism.
“There is a 50 percent rate of intermarriage,” said Bronfman. “You can’t face the facts and say they don’t exist. Jews are always going to be intermarried. But we make a terrible mistake putting pressure on them. They go off to college and, if they fall in love, they fall in love! What kind of attitude is that? Diversity is a wonderful thing.”
While Aish HaTorah, one of the world’s largest Jewish organizations and sponsor of the event, encourages Jews to marry other Jews — or at least “a sincere convert” — Bronfman mostly preached to the choir on that mid-July afternoon.
According to the mission statement posted on its Web site, Kesher, the Microsoft-based Aish program, “seeks to provide a venue for young professional Jews to connect with the beauty and relevance of Judaism as well as other young Jews, the greater Seattle Jewish community and Israel.”
Kesher sponsors Shabbat dinners, social events and classes in Jewish learning.
“We’ve been active for about a year now,” said Rabbi Mark Spiro, director of Aish Seattle. “There a lot of Jews at Microsoft. Estimates go as high as 10 percent. That turns out to be around 2,000 people. Many of them are bright, ambitious and new to the area.”
According to Spiro, Aish executive director Rabbi Chaim Levine met Bronfman during a recent trip to New York and invited him to speak at the Redmond campus. Bronfman agreed and made the trip West especially for the speaking engagement.
Bronfman himself was a relative latecomer to Jewish issues, both religious and political. The 1999 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient admits that it wasn’t until he saw the opportunity to help free thousands of refuseniks living in the former Soviet Union in the 1980s that he became involved with Jewish causes.
Since then, he has been a tireless advocate. Bronfman helped to create a Web site called MyJewishLearning.com and a program called birthright israel that offers free 10-day trips to Israel for Jews between the ages of 18 and 26 — nearly 100,000 young Jews have visited the Holy Land on the program to date. Today, Bronfman continues to distribute much of his fortune to Jewish causes and Jewish education around the world.
He has written two memoirs: The Making of a Jew and Good Spirits: The Making of a Businessman, and is planning the release of his new book, Jewish Renaissance for a Significant Future. Bronfman is married to his third wife, is the father of seven children and a grandfather to 22. He says that now he’s knowledgeable about his own heritage and he wants American Jews to wake up.
“The problem is apathy and there’s a history to this,” said Bronfman, getting to the heart of his argument. “Our forefathers did not come here to become better Jews. They came here to have a better future for themselves and their children. It never occurred to them that Jews would never be Jewish.
“And our success is beyond belief,” he continued. “But the thing that really matters is that being Jewish today is no longer a condition. It’s an option.”
Bronfman not only recommends that Jews re-establish their religious identity, but he also envisions them playing a unique role in mediating what he sees as one of the great battles of our time, the Islamic agenda.
“It seems that the Jews are perfectly positioned to start a dialogue. We can play a good role,” he said.
But in the end, this globetrotting diplomat and philanthropist offered sage-like advice for all who would heed it.
“Figure out what you’re doing with the third act of your life,” said Bronfman. “I advise all of you to give back and there are thousands of ways to do that.”