Andrea Bronfman Is Killed by a Car As She Walks Her Dog on 65th St.

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.

Andrea Bronfman Is Killed by a Car As She Walks Her Dog on 65th St.

Andrea Bronfman Is Killed by a Car As She Walks Her Dog on 65th St.

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