How a German-Jewish Mystic Created an American Soap Company Determined to Clean Up the Planet

The unusual story behind Dr. Bronner's suds

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Read the label on most soaps and you’ll find a few words about freshness and lather. But pick up a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s and you’ll read this: “Whatever unites us is greater than whatever divides us! … Only if constructive-selfish work, perfecting first me, like every arctic owl-penguin-pilot-cat-swallow-beaver-bee, can I teach the Moral ABC.”

Emanuel Bronner (r.) was a self-styled philosopher-mystic who urged all to put aside their racial and national differences. Today, the firm is run by his grandsons David (l.)
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