Ask JTF for March 31, 2013 is ready, baruch Hashem

[Chaim Ben Pesach]

בס''ד

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[Rabbi Lipschitz]

  Shalom Chaim, thankyou for answering questions, maybe next time I will ask my first question.
 
 

[TruthSpreader]

Thank you, Chaim.

[JTFenthusiast2]

Thank you Chaim

[muman613]

The Bronfman center is a large center in Montreal that provides food for poor Jews over the holidays, and provides them with other help such as jobs, legal help, and helps organize the birthright trips.

Chaim,

I realize you are talking about one of the Bronfman siblings who is engaged to a rap star. But I hope you realize that the entire Bronfman family are philanthropists and several of them have given generously to Jewish causes.

For example there is Charles Bronfman whos philanthropy includes:

He and Michael Steinhardt co-founded the Zionist charity Taglit Birthright, a program which provides a free, educational travel experience to Israel for young Jewish adults. Bronfman is one of its principal donors.
Bronfman is Chairman of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies Inc., a family of charitable foundations operating in Israel, the U.S., and Canada. Bronfman is also responsible for the Charles Bronfman Prize, honoring individuals for their humanitarian contributions. The first winner was Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation founder Jay Feinberg.

Bronfman was a founding co-chairman of Historica, producers of the Heritage Minutes series of television shorts. It was at an early meeting of this foundation (originally the CAB Foundation) that he asked the members, "If television can use 30 seconds or 60 seconds to persuade people that Cadillacs or cornflakes are interesting, couldn't we also use that short piece of time to persuade Canadians that their history is interesting? You tell me how to do it, and I'll fund it." It was out of that discussion that the Heritage Minutes were conceived, piloted, distributed through cinemas and broadcasters across the country, and then confirmed as a major contribution of the Foundation—which a few years later became Historica, recently merged with the Dominion Institute.

In 2012, Bronfman announced a $10 million gift to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in support of the renovation of their concerthouse in Tel Aviv, Heichal Hatarbut. In recognition of his landmark gift, the new concert hall will be named the Charles R. Bronfman Auditorium in his honor.[3]

Charles Bronfman also has several honors including Doctor of Philosophy from Hebrew University of Jerusalem...

Here is a list of the entire Bronfman family:

* Samuel Bronfman (1891–1971); married to Saidye Rosner Bronfman (1896–1995)
* Allan Bronfman (1895-1980); married to Lucy Bronfman parents of Edward and Peter Bronfman
* Phyllis Lambert (b. 1927)
* Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (b. 1929)
* Mitchell Bronfman, nephew of Edgar (born c.1935)
* Edgar Bronfman, Jr. (b. 1955)
* Charles Bronfman (b. 1931); married to Andrea Bronfman (1945–2006)
* Edward Bronfman (1927–2005)
* Peter Bronfman (1929–1996)
* David Bronfman (b. 1969)
* Benjamin Bronfman (b. 1982); engaged to M.I.A
* Steve Bronfman
* Clare Bronfman
* Sara Bronfman
* Adam Bronfman[1]
* Hannah Bronfman
* Vanessa Bronfman

According to the wiki pages most of the siblings have at least married Jewish women once or twice.

I think we should give credit where credit is due. At least acknowledge the good that some of the Bronfman family has done while also exposing the bad ones such as Ben Bronfman...

[Chaim Ben Pesach]

בס''ד

The Bronfman family deserves only condemnation and scorn. The head of the family, Edgar Bronfman Sr. yimach shmo vezichro, was the head of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) yimach shmam vezichram. Bronfman and the WJC since the 1970s have supported the PLO terrorists and Yasser Arafat. In the 1970s, when everyone else was against an independent "Palestine" state and an Israeli retreat to the pre-1967 Auschwitz lines, Bronfman and the WJC were pushing for this suicidal nightmare. No one in this cursed family stood up to object when the head of the family started a major public relations campaign for Israeli national suicide. Or when the head of the family intermarried several times.

Until the Jewish people learn to hate and curse traitorous leaders, we will always face catastrophes. Because of traitorous leaders, over 6 million Jews were murdered in the holocaust, and we have lost countless millions to the spiritual holocaust of assimilation. 

[muman613]

בס''ד

The Bronfman family deserves only condemnation and scorn. The head of the family, Edgar Bronfman Sr. yimach shmo vezichro, was the head of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) yimach shmam vezichram. Bronfman and the WJC since the 1970s have supported the PLO terrorists and Yasser Arafat. In the 1970s, when everyone else was against an independent "Palestine" state and an Israeli retreat to the pre-1967 Auschwitz lines, Bronfman and the WJC were pushing for this suicidal nightmare. No one in this cursed family stood up to object when the head of the family started a major public relations campaign for Israeli national suicide. Or when the head of the family intermarried several times.

Until the Jewish people learn to hate and curse traitorous leaders, we will always face catastrophes. Because of traitorous leaders, over 6 million Jews were murdered in the holocaust, and we have lost countless millions to the spiritual holocaust of assimilation.

I was not aware of this. Are there any other sources which confirm these accusations? I will take your word, of course, but it would be best to provide sources for this...

[muman613]

I just did a search and came across this explanation:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Guyt8CU-ixkC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=bronfman+support+plo&source=bl&ots=PSa_pAJ6P4&sig=vM1SgY7zqXRHI5gi8MdwJt5i-G4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VCxfUYXZPILFigKmzoDIDg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bronfman%20support%20plo&f=false

Apparently they (Bronfman and WJC) were against meeting with the PLO but eventually came to accept it...

It appears that Bronfman was involved with parties in Germany (GDR)... I do not fully understand it... But it seems that Chaim is correct that Bronfman was involved with some very bad actors...

http://books.google.com/books?id=uG2iIeZ4TNsC&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=bronfman+support+plo&source=bl&ots=7xd6YyX3d_&sig=-ScFvJEwBKQ0wSazmE26Qjub8X0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VCxfUYXZPILFigKmzoDIDg&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=bronfman%20support%20plo&f=false

[muman613]

It seems the Bronfman story is twisted and not very simple. At times he seems to be on the right side, others he is completely on the side of evil...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Bronfman,_Sr.

On June 25, 1982, Bronfman became the first representative of a Jewish organization to speak before the UN. Speaking before the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament, Bronfman said, "world peace cannot tolerate the denial of the legitimacy of Israel or any other nation-state ... [and the] charge that Zionism is racism is an abomination."[6]

Under Bronfman's presidency, in 1986 the World Jewish Congress accused Austrian President Kurt Waldheim of covering up his past connections to the Nazi party. It was when Waldheim became a candidate for president that the World Jewish Congress first published material showing Waldheim's active duty in the German army during war time. This evidence was later used to prove that Waldheim must have known about the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, though Waldheim's service as an Austrian in the German army cannot be considered a war crime. Waldheim had served as an intelligence officer in a unit of the army that participated in the transfer of Greek Jews to death camps.[7]

The allegations against Waldheim resulted in public embarrassment for the Austrian president. He was on the U.S. Justice Department's list of undesirables in April 1987.[8][9]

On May 5, 1987, Bronfman spoke to the World Jewish Congress saying Waldheim was “part and parcel of the Nazi killing machine.” Waldheim subsequently filed a lawsuit against Bronfman, but dropped the suit shortly after due to a lack of evidence in his favor.[7]

It was in the late 1990s that Bronfman championed the cause of restitution from Switzerland for Holocaust survivors.[10][11] Bronfman began an initiative that led to the $1.25 billion settlement from Swiss banks. This settlement aimed to resolve claims "that they hoarded bank accounts opened by Jews who were murdered by the Nazis."[12][13] The Swiss banks, the United States Government, and Jewish groups investigated unclaimed assets deposited by European Jews into Swiss banks before the Holocaust.[14] Negotiations began in 1995 between the U.S. and Switzerland. The parties reached a settlement in August, 1998, and signed the $1.25 billion settlement in January, 1999. In exchange for the settlement money, both parties agreed to release the Swiss banks and government from any claims regarding the Holocaust. The settlement was officially approved on November 22, 2000 by Judge Edward R. Korman.[15]

Bronfman stepped down from that post on May 7, 2007, amidst scandals and turmoil about Israel Singer.[16][17][18]

According to Joel Bainerman, in 1991 he was appointed to the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations to conduct official contacts between the Vatican and the State of Israel.[19]

Bronfman was accused by another WJC official of "perfidy" when he wrote a letter to President Bush in mid‐2003 urging Bush to pressure Israel to curb construction of its controversial West Bank separation barrier.[20]

Though I agree with Chaim that his involvement in pressuring Israel to give land to the arabs was condemnable.

One thing is certain to me at least... Bronfmans money would have helped the Jewish people much more if he funneled a few million dollars into JTF and Haamayin Hamiti...