Samuel Bronfman
| Samuel Bronfman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
February 27, 1889 Soroki, Bessarabia (now Moldova) |
| Died | July 10, 1971 (aged 82) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Founder of Distillers Corporation Ltd. |
| Spouse(s) | Saidye Rosner Bronfman |
| Children | Aileen Mindel "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzburg Phyllis Lambert Edgar Miles Bronfman Charles Rosner Bronfman |
Samuel Bronfman, CC (February 27, 1889 – July 10, 1971) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He founded Distillers Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family.
Samuel Bronfman was born in Soroki, Bessarabia, then part of Imperial Russia, one of eight children of Mindel and Yechiel Bronfman. He and his parents were Jewish refugees of Czarist Russia's anti-Semitic pogroms, who migrated to Wapella, Saskatchewan. They soon moved 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 of that region. 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 liquor distributor. He founded 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 sold liquor to the northern cities of the U.S. such as Boston, New York City and Chicago during the Prohibition era, while operating from the perimeters of Montreal, Quebec where alcohol production was legal.
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