Emanuel Bronner
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Emanuel Theodore Bronner (born Emanuel Heilbronner;<ref name="journal-sentinel" /> February 1, 1908 – March 7, 1997) was the founder of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He used product labels to promote his moral and religious ideas, including a belief in the goodness and unity of humanity.
HistoryEdit
Bronner was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.<ref name="db" /> He emigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name due to its association with Nazism.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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 emigrate 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."<ref name="sd" /> His parents were murdered in the Holocaust.
- BronnerNaturalizationCertificate.jpg
Bronner's 1936 naturalization certificate making him a U.S. citizen
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Portrait from the naturalization certificate
CareerEdit
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",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> both of which he included on the label of every soap bottle he produced.<ref name="Ben Ehrlich 2007, page 2">Ben Ehrlich, Dr. Bronner's Soapy History, The [Jewish] Forward, June 29, 2007, page 2.</ref> 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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} "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."</ref> The labels became famous for their idiosyncratic style, including hyphens to join long strings of words and the liberal use of exclamation marks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name="journal-sentinel" />
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.<ref name="ts" /> The firm has been the subject of many published articles and has supported many charitable causes.<ref name="ts" />
LegacyEdit
After Bronner's death, his family has continued to run the business. His grandson David Bronner is currently CEO.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Applying Fair Trade Principles To A Manufacturing Supply Chain (presentation by Gero Leson, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps Director of Special Operations)">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref name="Ben Ehrlich 2007, page 2"/><ref name="NYTmoviereview" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a ship, the Template:MV, donated by the soap company.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>