The I.W. Harper Kentucky bourbon brand was founded by a Jewish entrepreneur. Photo: millerm217 via Flickr.

JNS.org – If when you think the history of whiskey in the U.S. your mind conjures up images of cowboys and the Wild West, or gritty bootleggers sneaking around at night, these images fit snuggly among those that The Atlantic is trying to dispel in an article published earlier this week.

Among the many romanticized ideas about alcohol in America, what likely doesn’t often come to mind is that one of the major global whiskey brands made in the U.S. was founded by a Jew.

As the article eloquently describes, “In 1867, a Jewish immigrant by the name of Isaac Wolfe Bernheim arrived to America from Germany. He rode in steerage during his trip across the Atlantic and survived on potatoes—a humble beginning to the bootstrapping success story he would tell decades later, after building one of the biggest whiskey brands in the world.”

This Jewish entrepreneur was only one of many Jews who ventured into the whiskey business. Read the full article in The Atlantic.