Isaac Wolfe Bernheim

“The Philanthropist”

Isaac Wolfe Bernheim was born on November 4, 1848, in the small southwest German town of Schmieheim.  His father, Leon Solomon Bernheim, died when Isaac was just seven years of age. His mother, Fanny Dreyfuss, would remarry two years later to Louis Weil.  Isaac was the oldest of three living children and one yet unborn sibling, who died in infancy.  The now Bernheim/Weil family moved to Freiburg during his early teens when the laws regarding civil rights for Jews were liberalized.  Shortly after the move, his younger sister Elise died, leaving Isaac with one brother, Bernard.

After moving to Freiburg, Isaac would work as an apprentice learning bookkeeping and money handling until a few years later when he accepted a clerk position in Frankfurt.  In the Summer of 1866, after becoming himself somewhat independent, the country would go to war with Austria.  At age 18, Isaac met his uncle Mangold Livingston, who was visiting from the U.S. Uncle Mangold impressed upon young Isaac that success could be achieved in the United States with hard work, health, and good fortune. His uncle promised young Isaac work at his yarn factory should he ever decide to make the move to New York.

In April of 1867, despite his mother’s strong reservations, Isaac immigrated to New York City with just four dollars in his pocket – only to find his uncle's business had filed for bankruptcy.  The Civil War had an impact on the economy and the spending of many.  Now in the United States with no job, he was grateful to have received some financial assistance from Mangold and moved to Pennsylvania, where he peddled Yankee notions: scissors, thread, needles, handkerchiefs, etc., to families living in rural settlements.  After saving his earnings for a few months, he purchased a horse and wagon on credit, allowing him to expand his territory.  His travel and interactions with customers allowed him an opportunity to improve his English fluency and the understanding of American customs.

hings were moving quickly for the two brothers, so much so that, two years later in 1872, they opened their own liquor company, “Bernheim Brothers Distillery,” after a dispute with the owners at Loeb & Bloom over becoming partners with an interest in the business.  The brothers are believed to have contributed their life savings of $1,200 to help fund the $3,200 start-up.  Isaac also married Amanda Uri in 1874 before the two brothers would begin production of their first corn-based Kentucky whiskey in 1879, which they named I.W. Harper.  Like many other merchants during that time, Isaac had doubts about the marketability of his Jewish-German family name on the label, so he opted to use his initials I.W. and the surname from a horse trainer he had read about named John Harper.

Later that winter, Isaac’s horse died, and he again joined his Uncle Mangold, who had since moved to Paducah, Kentucky, joining another uncle, Benjamin Weille, in business. Isaac, not strong in sales, went to work as a bookkeeper for the wholesale liquor business of Loeb and Bloom.  After again building a savings, young Isaac, now beginning to get his feet underneath him, sought advancement.  In 1870, Isaac tapped into his savings and assisted with moving his brother Bernard, who was still in Germany, to the United States, where he would replace Isaac as bookkeeper, with Isaac getting a promotion into sales for Loeb and Bloom.

In 1888, with the brand growing in popularity, the brothers relocated their operations to Louisville, a major hub located on the Ohio River, simplifying their distribution strategy with an available waterway. Marni Davis, author of the 2012 book “Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition,” has noted that at the turn of the 20th century, Jews, who made up only 3 percent of Louisville’s population, “made up 25 percent of [its] whiskey distillers, rectifiers [blenders], and wholesalers.”

In 1890, the company acquired an interest in the Pleasure Ridge Park distillery just a few short miles outside of Louisville.  However, in 1896, that distillery was destroyed by fire, leaving the Bernheim Bros with a $1 million tax bill on the bonded whiskey stored in its warehouses. The brothers would rebuild the following year, and after 18 months of litigation, the government cancelled the tax assessment due.

With now $2 million in capital, the Bernheim Distillery Company was incorporated in 1903 and acquired both the Warwick and the Mayfield distilleries in 1906.  By the start of the 20th century, Bernheim was one of America’s largest distilleries, and one of 10 distilleries permitted to continue producing alcohol for “medicinal purposes” during Prohibition.

On December 9, 1922, wife Amanda Bernheim died after a lingering illness.  One year later, Isaac Bernheim married his late wife’s sister, Emma Levy.

Bernheim, known for his generous philanthropic giving, was a member of the National Jewish Community in the United States.  He privately financed two Kentucky statues in the statuary hall of the U.S. Capitol, a statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the Louisville Free Public Library, and the statue of Thomas Jefferson outside the Jefferson County courthouse in Kentucky.  Later in life, he also returned to his boyhood home in Schmieheim, Germany, where he personally financed Schmieheim's first plumbing system and built homes for the elderly. In 1928--amid prohibition – Isaac Bernheim purchased 14,000 acres of farmland in Kentucky’s Bullitt and Nelson Counties.  The land would later be named the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. Bernheim also started a trust to ensure the forest’s upkeep.

In 1937, Isaac W. Bernheim sold the Bernheim Brothers distillery to Schenley.  Leading Schenley was a man named Lewis Rosenstiel, another Jewish liquor entrepreneur who would ultimately be responsible for landmark initiatives affecting the production standards of bourbon and protecting its status as a uniquely American product.  After the sale, Bernheim would continue his philanthropic work in Louisville with his I.W. Bernheim Foundation while moving to Colorado and spending his winters in Santa Monica, CA.  It is in Colorado that Isaac died on April 1, 1945, at the age of 96.  Oddly, Bernheim’s death was ruled a suicide after he fell from his 8th-floor apartment window, leaving his estate of more than $3 million to his trust.  The funds would be used to fund an arboretum for raising trees and shrubs that would be given to the state of Kentucky for lining highways, a wildlife sanctuary, a museum of natural history, and an art gallery.

The I.W. Harper brand is now owned by Diageo, and the Bernheim brand is now owned by Heaven Hill and the Shapira family.  For centuries, many successes in the bourbon and whiskey industry have come from a single family line of distillers, but the Bernheim and Shapira families are exceptions.  Additionally, Jewish names weren’t often prevalent on labels.  Nearly a half century after Isaac Bernheim’s death, in 2000, Heaven Hill would market the Bernheim name on a bottle with its Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey.  For many years, the I.W. Harper brand was exported throughout Asia, however, the brand has seen renewed distribution inside the United States along with the Bernheim Wheat Whiskey.

Guests visiting the Bernheim Distillery today may notice the ceiling of the visitor center, where wooden beams above the tasting bar are held up by iron supports shaped like the Star of David – a mark of remembrance to the brand’s Jewish heritage, culture, and faith.