An agency investigating the disappearance of Samuel Bronfman 2nd, the 21-year-old son of world Jewish leader Edgar M. Bronfman, and a spokesman for the family told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today there was no evidence that young Bronfman’s reported kidnapping was connected with his father’s Jewish and pro-Israeli activities. Edgar M. Bronfman is North American chairman of the World Jewish Congress and head of the WJC’s international committee combatting the Arab boycott.
The kidnapping, which occurred in suburban Westchester County north of New York City, is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, and police in York town Heights where Edgar Bronfman lives.
The FBI’s New York office today would only say it was conducting an investigation into the kidnapping. The disappearance was announced last night by the FBI’s headquarters in Washington which said that young Bronfman had called his father at 2 a.m. Saturday and said he had been kidnapped by three men “and he or they would be in contact with his father later.”
CALLED TO SAY HE WAS KIDNAPPED
The Westchester County District Attorney’s office said that young Bronfman had left his father’s house at 11:30 p.m. Friday to drive back to his mother’s home, in Harrison about 20 miles away. At about 2:45 a.m. Saturday his father received the call from young Bronfman saying he had been kidnapped. The FBI announcement said young Bronfman had been on his way to a party.
The District Attorney’s office told the JTA there was “no evidence at this time” that the kidnapping was related to the elder Bronfman’s Jewish activities. A spokesman for the family said the same thing when reached at the Bronfman residence. Samuel Bronfman, the oldest of Edgar Bronfman’s five children is 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass, in June. He was named after his late grandfather Samuel Bronfman, founder and president of Distillers-Seagram Ltd., Montreal.
Edgar Bronfman, who succeeded his father as president of the liquor company in 1971, is active in the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, president of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, and a trustee of the National Urban League.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
