Edgar Bronfman, a member of the Williams Class of 1950, was the son of a poor Russian immigrant to Canada and eventually became head of the family business: The Seagram Company. Since 1981 he has also served as president of the World Jewish Congress and one of Jewry’s most visible and effective statesmen. Under his leadership, the congress won freedom for Soviet Jews, protections for embattled Jewish communities in South America, and financial reparations from Swiss banks for money taken from Holocaust victims. He also serves as chairman of the Board of Governors of Hillel, the world’s largest campus Jewish organization and he helped found the group called “israel birthright,” which enables young Jewish adults around the world to make their first trip to Israel. President Clinton appointed him chair of an advisory commission on Holocaust assets in the U.S., which recommended ways to pursue justice for elderly Holocaust survivors and their families and also awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.