A Life Fulfilled - EMB
It was a very unusual memorial service. It was not held in a church, a synagogue or a temple, but in the Avery Fisher Hall of the Lincoln Center in New York City. That vast and beautiful symphony space will seat 2783 people and except for the boxes in the top tier, it was filled. Two ordained religious persons participated in this memorial event, but their roles were minimal. One rabbi sang and the other did a very brief invocation. This served as a kind of tip of the hat to traditional religious forms. The first three speakers were sons of the deceased, who gave very personal remembrances. Next Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, spoke via a video hookup to pay tribute to the deceased, citing some of his contributions to humanity. The final and major eulogy, if that is the right word to use, was delivered by the former Secretary of State and former Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton. She spoke personally, movingly and at length of this man’s accomplishments and of what he had meant to “Bill and me.” She even commented that she had from time to time received letters from him commenting on her wardrobe.
Who was the deceased? His name was Edgar Miles Bronfman, a Canadian by birth, a New Yorker by the time of his death. He was a very wealthy business man identified in the minds of many with The Seagram Company, the maker of fine whiskies, and later with MGM of Hollywood, but he was known primarily as a Jewish philanthropist. His lifetime work, however, transcended all religious limits. His ultimate commitment was to the causes of human justice and freedom. It is, nonetheless, fair to say that in his hearts of hearts, he saw justice and freedom through the lens of the Jewish people, and he was their fierce defender. His people, the Jews, had been forced into the role of the “victim’ in Western civilization by a deep and abiding anti-Semitism that flowed primarily through the Western Christian church. In Western history the Jews suffered discrimination, persecution, banishment, exile, ghettoization, homelessness, the confiscation of their property, torture and finally genocidal murder at the hands of the Nazi Government in Germany. This was not ancient history. The Holocaust took place in the middle years of the 20th century! That was surely why President Peres was moved to speak so passionately at this memorial service about the cause of Jewish freedom.
Some of Edgar’s more memorable accomplishments were recalled on that day. In 1981 he became President of the World Jewish Congress. In that capacity he became a figure of world renown. When the Pope, John Paul II, met with the leaders of this Congress, he spent time extolling the virtues of the Catholic Church in the cause of promoting religious tolerance. It was Edgar who brought that conversation to a new level by telling the Pope: “We are not interested in tolerance; you can keep your tolerance. What we want is respect.” The Pope never forgot him.
Sometime earlier another international group of Jewish leaders were meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of the Soviet Union. Mr. Gorbachev was garrulous in his welcoming comments on this occasion, citing the accomplishments of the Soviet state. Edgar Bronfman interrupted him saying: “Mr. Gorbachev, while we appreciate the things you are saying, your time with us is limited and we have come here today to discuss the plight of the Russian Jews and the desire of many of them to be allowed to immigrate.” The agenda was adjusted to get to the point. Few people have the courage to interrupt a head of state, but for Edgar justice was more important than propriety.
When Kurt Waldheim was seeking to become the President of Austria, it was Edgar Bronfman, who identified him as a Nazi and who raised international alarm over the possibility that he might occupy political office. Ultimately Waldheim was forced to step down. Edgar was both vigilant and uncompromising in his opposition to those who wished ill for the Jews. He was a constant force in the pursuit of human justice. Yes, he identified himself with the plight of the Jews, but it was justice for the oppressed of the world that motivated this man’s life.
Samuel Bronfman was the first of his sons to speak at this memorial service. He immediately made it clear that Edgar, his father, did not believe in God and that he had no expectation of any life beyond this life. These words set a particular secular tone to this day. His son did say, however, that his father believed in the virtues that Judaism, his faith tradition, had always identified with God – justice, fairness, equality. These were, he said, the virtues that his father believed that he, as a Jew, had to pursue. It was a fascinating statement of modern secularism, which has not yet forgotten its roots. One person was quoted as having said of Edgar that while he did not believe in God, he did believe in “godliness.” God for Edgar was not a noun that needed to be defined; God was a verb that needed to be lived!
A large amount of Edgar’s fortune was spent in philanthropic acts. He helped to revive Hillel, The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, which established chapters for Jewish students on university and college campuses across the United States. He was serving as the national president of Hillel at the time of his death. He wanted Jewish students to appreciate their Jewish heritage, whether or not they ever became “religious” Jews. He organized and endowed a program that came to be known as “Bronfman Scholars,” which provided finances for Jewish students to pursue academic excellence and thus to become leaders in a wide variety of fields. One of these Bronfman scholars gave her testimony at this memorial service.
Edgar Bronfman was a prodigious reader and one who never used age as an excuse to stop learning. He even began taking piano lessons when he was well into his seventies. He had an interesting marriage pattern. His widow, Jan Aronson, the person who was closest to him for the last twenty-five years of his life, was a talented New York artist. She described herself to me as “Edgar’s third or fifth wife, depending on how you count them.” He had children by two wives. He married one of his wives twice. He had one of his marriages annulled.
Following this massively attended memorial service in Avery Fisher Hall, in which the public Edgar Bronfman was extolled, a considerably smaller group, perhaps 150 or so invited guests, went to dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant, a New York favorite, housed in the Seagram Building, headquarters of the Seagram Company. It was here that family and friends would recall and remember the private Edgar Bronfman. It was a delightful time of story telling. Two of his daughters spoke in ways that brought tears to the eyes of the hearers. Jan, his wife, told of how they met and how Edgar “informed” her that they were getting married.
At each of the tables of ten in the Four Seasons, a member of the Bronfman family hosted the guests. Adam Bronfman, Edgar’s youngest son, and his wife were at our table. Other guests around that table were: a Bronfman cousin and his wife, the Rabbi who gave the invocation and his wife, Rachel, a New York psychiatrist, Richard M. Joel, the President of Yeshiva University in New York City, and finally Christine and me. The food was spectacular, the service, top of the line.
Christine and I met Edgar about eight years ago when out of the blue with no introduction I received a letter from him. As a result of his wide reading interest, one of my books had come to his attention. The major themes in my writing career have been two: first to identify with appreciation, the Jewish roots of Christianity and thus to pay proper respect to the Jewish womb that birthed not only Jesus of Nazareth but also Christianity itself; and second, to force Christianity’s traditional religious concepts into dialogue with both the modern world and contemporary knowledge. Edgar had been intrigued with the themes in the book he had read and wondered if my wife and I might be willing to discuss it over dinner at his home in New York City, which overlooked Central Park. We accepted with pleasure and anticipation. It was a delightful and fascinating evening. Other dinner guests that night were the Rabbi who headed up the Bronfman Foundation, his wife, and Edgar’s psychiatrist and friend from Connecticut. That was the beginning of a short, but meaningful friendship. Later, Edgar and Jan came to Morristown to see the New Jersey premiere of: “A Pebble in My Shoe,” a play based on my autobiography, Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love and Equality.
Our next contact was when Edgar decided to write a new Haggadah for Passover that would tell the Jewish Exodus story in the words and concepts of the 21st century. He asked me if I would read it and comment on it before publication. I did; he was doing for his Jewish tradition the very same thing that I was trying to do for my Christian tradition. This Haggadah was beautifully illustrated by his wife Jan and published about two years ago under the title The Bronfman Haggadah. Christine and I went to the launch of that publication. It was held, not coincidentally, at the Four Seasons Restaurant.
The dedication printed in this book was so typically Edgar. It read: “To the youth of the Jewish people. We, who have come before you, stand at the roots of the tree of life, while you live above in its blossoming spring. The story of your ancestors is now in your hands. Tell it proudly.” That is exactly the message I hope to leave with the new generation of Christians.
Life is a treasure. We are blessed and enriched by people again and again in the course of our lifetimes. Sometimes those intersections of people seem so accidental and so impossible, but they are real and life-giving. I am glad I had the chance to know Edgar and Jan. His was indeed “a life fulfilled.”
~John Shelby Spong
Read the essay online
here.
