The Los Angeles–raised philanthropist is being honored for decades of work in public safety, Jewish communal life, and the fight against antisemitism.
Washington, D.C. May 2026
Elliott Broidy will be among three Jewish Americans honored at this year’s Jewish American Heritage Month luncheon on Capitol Hill, receiving the Visionary Award at a ceremony on Capitol Hill on May 19th.
The annual event, organized by Project Legacy under the leadership of Ezra Friedlander, has honored Jewish American leaders since the early 1980s, when Jewish Heritage Week was established following discussions between Malcolm Hoenlein, President Ronald Reagan, and Elie Wiesel. Broidy will be recognized alongside Nobel Prize-winning physician Dr. Harvey J. Alter and Rabbi David Baron of Beverly Hills’ Temple of the Arts.
Broidy, 68, grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a World War II veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart and later became a schoolteacher, and a mother who worked as a nurse. He started working at age eleven — paper routes, Fuller Brush sales, plumbing jobs, salmon fishing in Alaska — and at 18 used his savings to buy a coin-operated laundromat to help put himself through the University of Southern California, where he earned a degree in accounting.
After becoming a CPA and working at Arthur Andersen, he spent nine years running the family office of Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell, advising on investments in more than 120 companies. He later founded Broidy Capital Management. By his mid-thirties, he had begun making significant charitable contributions to hospitals, synagogues, social services organizations, and educational institutions across the United States and Israel.
The September 11 attacks drew him deeper into public life. He served three years on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, six years as a commissioner of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Fund, and six years on the board of the Simon Wiesenthal Center–Museum of Tolerance.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel prompted a further expansion of his giving. He has since directed significant support toward Holocaust remembrance, countering extremism through organizations including the Counter Extremism Project, and strengthening Jewish communal infrastructure in the United States and Israel.
“This celebration is an opportunity not only to honor the contributions of Jewish Americans throughout our nation’s history, but also to reaffirm our shared responsibility to confront hatred and protect the values of tolerance, democracy and human dignity.”
This year’s event is chaired by Malcolm Hoenlein and Eric J. Gertler, Executive Chairman of U.S. News and World Report.