Isaac Wolfe Bernheim

[1] The success of his distillery and distribution business helped to consolidate the Louisville area as a major center of Kentucky bourbon distilling.

Isaac Bernheim was born in Schmieheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, now part of Kippenheim in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1867 with $4 in his pocket.

Following the death of his horse, Bernheim moved to Paducah, Kentucky, where he worked as a bookkeeper for a wholesale liquor company, Loeb, Bloom, & Co.

In March 1896, the distillery's bonded warehouse at Pleasure Ridge Park, which it shared jointly with another whiskey business, was destroyed by fire.

During the Prohibition era in the U.S. (1920–1933), Bernheim Brothers was one of only ten distilleries allowed to continue to make bourbon, as they had received a license to produce it for medicinal purposes.

The Frederick Law Olmsted landscape architecture firm started work on designing the park in 1931 and it opened in 1950.

Bernheim Forest was given to the people of Kentucky in trust and it is the largest privately owned natural area in the state.

In 2007 in his honor, his granddaughter Amanda Roth Block donated to the Hebrew Union College in New York City to President Rabbi David Ellenson a lithograph, "Moses and the Burning Bush", which was inspired by her grandfather's dedication to the Reform movement.

Bernheim's library at the Hebrew Union College was renovated to be the home of priceless documents and rare Torah scrolls.

Upon visiting his hometown of Schmieheim, Germany in the early 20th century, he discovered the village had no running water, and made a large contribution to improve the situation, enabling the town to install its first plumbing system.