Andrea Bronfman; NY Sun news story & obit
Hyfler/Rosner
January 24, 2006 Tuesday
Andrea Bronfman Is Killed by a Car As She Walks Her Dog on
65th St.
By STEPHEN MILLER, Staff Reporter of the Sun
Andrea Bronfman, wife of former Seagram co-chairman Charles
Bronfman and an important presence in New York philanthropic
circles in her own right, died after being hit by a car
yesterday morning.
Bronfman, 60, was struck at 6:48 a.m., as she walked home
after taking her dog for a walk in Central Park. Police said
that a black Lincoln Town Car ran her down as she crossed
East 65th Street, just half a block from her home at 838
Fifth Ave.
Still conscious, Bronfman was taken via ambulance to New
York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she
later died during surgery for multiple internal injuries,
authorities said.
Police questioned the driver, identified as a 36-year-old
male, but made no arrests in the case. Last night police
said they did not expect criminal charges to be filed.
Response from the world of Jewish philanthropies was swift,
and included condolences from Taglit-Birthright Israel,
Hillel, and the World Jewish Congress. Jeffrey Solomon,
president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies,
said, "There was an undeniable force that seemed to emanate
from Andy and make good things happen for many, many
people."
Among Bronfman's initiatives was Taglit-Birthright Israel, a
program that sends young Jews on a free pilgrimage to
Israel; AIDA, the Association of Israel's Decorative Arts,
which brought Israeli artists to North American galleries
and collectors, and Gift of New York, which she founded to
help the families of victims of September 11, 2001, by
providing them with tickets to New York-area cultural and
sporting events. Gift of New York was "inspired by the idea
of Shiva," Bronfman told the Forward in 2003.More than half
the families with relatives who perished in the attacks were
benefited by Gift of New York.
Judaism was the common thread in her philanthropy.
Bronfman's parents were ardent Zionists who retired to
Israel, and philanthropists as well. Her father was a London
clothier who was a leader of the United Joint Israel Appeal,
and her mother, a homemaker, was a friend of the British
Friends of the Museums of Israel.
Born in London in 1945, Bronfman moved to Montreal as a
young bride of a Canadian clothing manufacturer. Mr.
Bronfman served as an usher at that wedding, and 13 years
later, in 1982, after the couple divorced, married the bride
himself, incorporating her three children into his family.
The heir to a great liquor fortune, Mr. Bronfman was
co-chairman of the distiller Seagram until it was sold to
the French conglomerate Vivendi in 2000.
At 5-foot-2, Andrea Bronfman was small of stature but had a
large presence. Retaining some of her British accent, she
carried herself firmly and focused on her passions and many
friends. She did not suffer fools gladly. She surrounded
herself with contemporary and modern art. Shoes were a
particularly favored theme, both as garments and in her
choice of decor, in paintings, glass sculptures, and other
formats.
Often, Bronfman was accompanied by her dog, Yoffi, a
pure-bred Canaan who was such a favorite that she had the
wing of a guide dog center for the blind in Israel named for
her. Yoffi was unharmed in yesterday's accident.
Bronfman adored Israel and spent summers there with her
family as a young woman. After she inherited their home in
Jerusalem, she again began spending three months each year
there, and eventually convinced Mr. Bronfman to come, too.
In 2000, the Bronfmans joined Michael and Judy Steinhardt in
founding Taglit-Birthright Israel, which so far has sent
88,000 young Jewish adults from 45 countries to Israel.
Recalling Bronfman's efforts in the early days of the
program yesterday, Mr. Steinhardt said, "She was tenacious,
vigorous, committed, and intense."
More recently, Bronfman concentrated on AIDA, which she
helped found in 2003, after the start of the second intifada
made it difficult for art buyers to visit artists in Israel.
With her encouragement, AIDA became a regular exhibit at the
International Expositions of Sculpture Objects and
Functional Art. In 2005, in his wife's honor, Mr. Bronfman
established the Andrea M. Bronfman Prize for the Arts, known
as "The Andy," to be awarded annually to an Israeli
decorative artist.
Bronfman sat on the boards of the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee and the Jewish Museum. She created
and directed a traveling exhibition, "A Coat of Many
Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada." She was
also a founder of the "Group of 35," a Montreal women's
campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
Possessed of triple citizenship - British, Canadian, and
American, Bronfman in 2002 became with her husband the first
North Americans since 1950 to be named honorary citizens of
Israel.
She is survived by her husband; her sons, Jeremy Cohen and
Tony Cohen; her daughter, Pippa Cohen; her stepson, Stephen
Bronfman; stepdaughter Ellen Hauptman; six grandchildren,
and her sister, Marcia Flanders.