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JULY 2005

Adam Bronfman

Corporate Leaders In Education:
An Interview With Adam Bronfman

By Sybil Maimin

He is a new kind of philanthropist. Born into wealth (the Seagram liquor empire), he is casual, unpretentious, youthful in demeanor and outlook, devoted to his wife and four children, and an avid skier. These qualities have helped Adam Bronfman, managing director of The Samuel Bronfman Foundation and vice chair of the Hillel Board of Directors, understand and connect with the young people his organizations seek to reach. Inspired by his father, the legendary businessman and philanthropist, Edgar Bronfman—“He is my hero in terms of making a difference, making the world a better place”—the son, nevertheless, is doing it his own way. Through its four major programs – the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel (BYFI), Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, My Jewish Learning.com, and The Curriculum Initiative (TCI), the Bronfman Foundation focuses on strengthening Jewish identity among young Jews from a wide range of religious and cultural perspectives. Adam Bronfman did not have a strong connection to his faith until the birth of his first child “inspired him to think about raising his family Jewishly.” Married to a non-Jewish woman, he determinedly supports pluralism within the faith and an atmosphere that is comfortable and welcoming for all. Citing its history and moral and ethical dimensions, he explains, “Judaism is something that contains religion but also a lot more.”

Bronfman is particularly proud of the Youth Fellowship program, started in 1987, which sends 26 outstanding Jewish high school juniors from widely different backgrounds to Israel each summer to study Judaism and the Jewish world. They interact with government, military, and cultural figures, Arabs, Israeli teen-agers, and a distinguished faculty. The goal is creation of future community leaders who are open-minded and able to speak a common language despite differences. They commit to remaining close to the program as alumnae and Bronfman reports, with the help of follow-up seminars, reunions, a listserv and e-mail network, the Fellows have maintained strong bonds and serve the Jewish community in myriad and creative ways. Dara Horn, a 1994 Fellow and now a prize-winning novelist (2002 National Jewish Book Award), describes “an astounding experience…The caliber of participants is extraordinarily high…lots of extremely bright, creative, articulate people with lots of interests.” She appreciated “being challenged to rethink the ways she thought about Judaism, Israel, and herself.” Sam Rascoff, a 1990 Fellow and now a lawyer, explains the program has no agenda, although “Its defining commitment is to Jewish pluralism and unity of the Jewish people…Denominations and categorizations are very limiting when approaching issues of common interest.” He recalls a “first-rate faculty, a rigorous learning experience, and a highly sophisticated appreciation of what it means to be a Jew in North America.”

At Hillel, the largest Jewish college campus organization in the world, Bronfman is focused on international expansion. There are currently 110 Hillel Foundations in the United States, Canada, Israel, Latin America, Australia, and states of the former Soviet Union. They are linked in a system of “interdependent self-sufficiency” with each having “its own flavor and board.” Hillel “opens a door” and allows students to discover and experience Jewish values and practices on their own terms, a mission very much in keeping with Bronfman’s own philosophy. The young philanthropist explains that another Bronfman Foundation initiative, MyJewishLearning.com (MJL), started in 2002, is another pluralistic venue, offering a comprehensive collection of information, commentaries, history, and more – all from diverse points of view. It even offers recipes for traditional Jewish dishes and is used by non-Jews as well as Jews. Another program, the Curriculum Initiative (TCI), is a many-faceted opportunity for secular secondary schools to incorporate Jewish ideas and learning into their curricula. Designed to ensure that no one religious group dominates a school culture, the program offers high-quality seminars on Jewish topics to teachers and provides support to Jewish students wishing to express their faith.

Bronfman is excited by new challenges, whether reaching out to Russian-Jewish immigrant students in Brooklyn or creating a Hillel for Spanish-speaking Jewish students in Miami. He is a doer who thinks outside the box as evidenced by his efforts in his hometown of Park City, Utah. There, he helped expand the Reform synagogue, Temple Har Shalom, by introducing artistic and cultural events such as a Schmoozdance Film Festival (to echo the nearby Sundance Film Festival) and a “Ski Shul,” a cabin on a mountain that has a ski-in, ski-out Shabbat service. There will be more challenges ahead and this young man with a vision of making Judaism exciting and comfortable for all seems ready to take them on.#

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