Emanuel Bronner: Difference between revisions
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{{use mdy dates|date=May 2019}} | {{use mdy dates|date=May 2019}} | ||
{{Infobox person | {{Infobox person | ||
| name | | name = Emanuel Bronner | ||
| image | | image = BronnerNaturalizationCertificatePhoto.jpg | ||
| alt | | alt = A black and white photo of a man | ||
| caption | | caption = Bronner {{Circa}} 1936 | ||
| birth_name | | birth_name = Emanuel Theodor Heilbronner | ||
| birth_date | | birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|02|01}} | ||
| birth_place | | birth_place = [[Heilbronn]], German Empire | ||
| death_date | | death_date = {{Death date and age|1997|03|07|1908|02|01}} | ||
| death_place | | death_place = [[Escondido, California]], U.S.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-this-day-creator-of-dr-bronners-magic-soaps-dies-1.5232973|work=[[Haaretz]]|title=This Day in Jewish History 1997: Creator of Dr. Bronner's "Magic" Moral Soaps Dies|last=Green|first=David B.|date=March 7, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223182410/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-this-day-creator-of-dr-bronners-magic-soaps-dies-1.5232973|archive-date=February 23, 2018}}</ref> | ||
| other_names | | other_names = | ||
| occupation | | occupation = Soap maker, entrepreneur | ||
| years_active | | years_active = | ||
| known_for | | known_for = [[Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps]] | ||
| notable_works = | | notable_works = | ||
}} | }} | ||
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== History == | == History == | ||
Bronner was born in [[Heilbronn]], Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.<ref name="db" /> He | Bronner was born in [[Heilbronn]], Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.<ref name="db" /> He immigrated to the [[United States]] in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name due to its association with [[Nazism]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Lubinski |first1=Christina |first2=Marvin |last2=Menniken |url=https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=134 |title=Emanuel Bronner |work=Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present |volume=5 |editor-first=R. Daniel |editor-last=Wadhwani |publisher=German Historical Institute |date=October 25, 2013 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-date=August 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816233908/https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=134 |url-status=live }}</ref> He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1936.<ref name=":0" /> As he and his family were [[Jewish]], he pleaded with his parents to immigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant [[Nazism|Nazi Party]], but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a [[Censorship|censored]] [[postcard]] saying, "You were right. —Your loving father."<ref name="sd" /> His parents were murdered in [[the Holocaust]]. | ||
== Career == | == Career == | ||
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronner, Emanuel}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Bronner, Emanuel}} | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Businesspeople from San Diego County, California]] | ||
[[Category:American company founders]] | |||
[[Category:Manufacturing company founders]] | |||
[[Category:Activists from California]] | |||
[[Category:Jewish American activists]] | |||
[[Category:American pacifists]] | |||
[[Category:Jewish pacifists]] | |||
[[Category:American blind people]] | |||
[[Category:People from Escondido, California]] | |||
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]] | |||
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]] | [[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Jews who immigrated to the United States to escape Nazism]] | ||
[[Category:German emigrants to the United States]] | |||
[[Category:German people of Jewish descent]] | [[Category:German people of Jewish descent]] | ||
[[Category:People from Heilbronn]] | [[Category:People from Heilbronn]] | ||
[[Category:20th-century American | [[Category:20th-century American Jews]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:1908 births|Bronner, E. H.]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:1997 deaths|Bronner, E. H.]] | ||
Latest revision as of 09:52, 24 September 2025
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Emanuel Theodore Bronner (born Emanuel Heilbronner;[1] February 1, 1908 – March 7, 1997) was the founder of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps.[2] He used product labels to promote his moral and religious ideas, including a belief in the goodness and unity of humanity.
History
Bronner was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.[3] He immigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name due to its association with Nazism.[4] He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1936.[4] As he and his family were Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to immigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazi Party, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a censored postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father."[5] His parents were murdered in the Holocaust.
Career
He started his business making products such as castile soap by hand in his home. The product labels are crowded with statements of Bronner's philosophy, which he called "All-One-God-Faith" and the "Moral ABC",[6] both of which he included on the label of every soap bottle he produced.[7] Many of Bronner's references came from Jewish and Christian sources, such as the Shema and the Beatitudes; others from writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Paine. On his labels, he referred to the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder as "Rabbi Hillel" and to Jesus Christ as "Rabbi Jesus."[8] The labels became famous for their idiosyncratic style, including hyphens to join long strings of words and the liberal use of exclamation marks.[9]
In 1946, while promoting his "Moral ABC" at the University of Chicago, Bronner was arrested for refusing to leave the dean's office, despite the fact he was invited to the campus to lecture by a local student group, and then was committed to the Elgin Mental Health Center, a mental hospital in Elgin, Illinois, from which he escaped after shock treatments. Bronner believed those shock treatments brought about his eventual blindness.[1]
After escaping from Elgin, Bronner hitch-hiked to Los Angeles, California. Over time Bronner started a family and eventually settled in Escondido, California, where his soap-making operation grew into a small factory. At his death in 1997, it produced more than a million bottles of soap and other products per year, but was still not mechanized.[10] The firm has been the subject of many published articles and has supported many charitable causes.[10]
Legacy
After Bronner's death, his family has continued to run the business. His grandson David Bronner is currently CEO.[11][12]
His life was the subject of a 2007 documentary film, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox, which premiered on the Sundance TV channel, on 3 July 2007.[7][13][14]
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a ship, the Template:MV, donated by the soap company.[15]
References
External links
- Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps Home Page
- Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox, a documentary film
- "The Undiluted Genius of Dr. Bronner's" (2012-04-03) in Inc. magazine
- ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ a b Ben Ehrlich, Dr. Bronner's Soapy History, The [Jewish] Forward, June 29, 2007, page 2.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". "The Moral ABC [Parts] I & II" by Dr. Emmanuel Bronner. Page 23: "Rabbi Hillel taught Jesus to unite the whole human race in our Eternal Father's great, All-One-God-Faith." Page 36: "A Human being must teach friend & Enemy the Moral ABC uniting all mankind free or that being is not yet human! Rabbi Jesus' full truth No. 1." Page 39: "To stay free: Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds teach Rabbi Hillel's Moral ABC."
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- 20th-century American businesspeople
- Businesspeople from San Diego County, California
- American company founders
- Manufacturing company founders
- Activists from California
- Jewish American activists
- American pacifists
- Jewish pacifists
- American blind people
- People from Escondido, California
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- American people of German-Jewish descent
- Jews who immigrated to the United States to escape Nazism
- German emigrants to the United States
- German people of Jewish descent
- People from Heilbronn
- 20th-century American Jews
- 1908 births
- 1997 deaths
- Pages with reference errors