Broido, Louis

Louis Broido (1895-1975)

Louis Broido was born on September 21, 1895 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a U.S. business executive and a civic and communal leader. He was the son of Morris and Sarah Broido and was one of eight children. Broido's parents came from Lithuania around 1880 and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

His father impressed upon him the value of a "useful life." Broido graduated from public school before he was 12. When he was 14 years old, he was a paid narrator in movie houses for silent films. At high school, he was considered its leading orator and debater and continued these activities at the University of Pittsburgh. While a freshman, he represented the University in a National Oratorical Peace Contest, and emerged as one of the top two men in the United States. At the same time, Broido was impressed by Dr. J. Leonard Levy and became actively interested in religious education. At the age of 17, he wrote a play entitled "The Enemies of Israel." Broido attended college for one year and then entered the Pitt Law School. Broido received his LL.B. from the University of Pittsburgh Law School in 1917 and was a member of the Bar of New York and Pennsylvania. Broido would become one of the leaders of the Reform Jewish Movement in the United States.

Within one month after the outbreak of World War I and while a senior at Law School, he enlisted in the University of Pittsburgh Base Hospital Unit and spent nearly three years in France. He received the most rapid promotion than any other man in the unit. He was commissioned and transferred to the division in charge of the acquisition of hospitals for the American Army. After the Armistice, he became a member of the United States Liquidation Commission and member of the U.S. Commission for War Claims in France in Italy under 1920. Before his departure from France, he was made a member of the French Legion of Honor. After the war, he spent a short time in the legal department of the Texas Company, later known as Texaco).

Broido returned to Pittsburgh and organized the law firm of Broido and Rosenbaum and engaged in general practice for a number of years. His forensic and oratorical ability was known and recognized and he was active in all communal and civic affairs. He coached the University of Pittsburgh Debating Team for one year and in the same year his team defeated Harvard.

Broido returned to practice law in Pittsburgh and then in New York from 1926 to 1936. He left the practice of law to become executive vice president of Gimbel Bros., Inc., where he worked for 26 years in a variety of positions and later became Chairman of Gimbels Advisory Committee. In addition to his many other corporate duties, Broido acted as labor relations negotiator and consultant for the company's various stores. In 1937 with the passage of the state's Little Wagner Act, he handled all the labor relations of the Gimbels New York and Saks 34 th Street stores.

In 1937 he negotiated with John L. Lewis and Sidney Hillman the first over-all, storewide labor relations contract in the United States. Concurrently he negotiated the contract with the AFL Building Service and Maintenance Union with respect to such workers. Thereafter, he conducted the negotiations with the AFL President of the New York State Carpenters Union, Mr. Johnson, and the head of the AFL Painters Union regarding the craft employees in these stores. Thereafter, for many years, he conducted negotiations with the AFL Teamster's Union regarding the company's warehouse in New York City and Teamster employees in other cities.

During the war, he had extensive experience with the State and National Labor Mediation Boards. He was a member of the Arbitration Panel of the National Labor Relations Board in the New York Region and acted as arbitrator in a number of cases, particularly two large and important cases during the war involving employees in the metropolitan area of the New York and New Jersey Telephone Companies.

Broido was one of the organizers of the Retail Labor Standards Association in New York, which was created in an endeavor to gather pertinent data and to handle labor relations of New York retail stores on a city-wide basis. He was Chairman of this group for some period.

He was Chairman of a negotiating committee to negotiate a city-wide contract with the labor unions in the retail field in New York. At that time, Mr. James Mitchell, representing Bloomingdale's, was Vice-Chairman. The negotiations were carried on principally by Mr. Broido and Mr. Mitchell.

Mr. Broido was a member of a committee of New York merchants working with the United Parcel Delivery Service in the negotiation of many contract renewals with the Teamster's Locals representing the employees of the United Parcel Service. He was a guest lecturer at Harvard University in the field of retail labor management relations and at the State Labor Relations School at Cornell University. As a member of the Board of the New York City Community College, Mr. Broido has had considerable experience with the problems arising out of faculty labor organization at the Community College level.

Mr. Broido was particularly interested in the problems involved in the labor organization of municipal groups such as teachers, with particular reference to the manner in which these large groups may find proper avenues of expression with necessary and proper safeguards to the public welfare and the public authorities, particularly the freedom of educational authorities in the proper exercise of their public duties.

He retired from his chairmanship of Gimbel Bros. in 1961 and became managing partner of a private investment company in the financial district from 1962. He devoted the remainder of his time to various communal and civic activities, primarily in his post as the Commissioner of the newly-formed City Department of Commerce and Industrial Development, charged with the responsibility of improving and developing the commerce and industry of New York City. Broido was also a New York retail trade leader and a member of several municipal committees. Broido served as President of the New York City Retail Drygoods Association and was for many years a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Retail Council. He served the industry in various capacities in connection with the O.P.A. and War Production Board during World War II.

Mr. Broido was for many years a member of the Board of Trustees and Vice-Chairman of the New York City Community College of Applied Arts and Sciences. He was a former President of the United Jewish Appeal of New York in 1951 and 1952. For many years, he was vice chairman of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and on the Administrative Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee. From 1965, Broido was Chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, of which he was a significant fundraiser. As Chairman of the JDC, he guided the activities of the major American Jewish welfare agency, bringing aid to needy Jews throughout the world. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El of New York City. His wife, Lucy Kaufmann Broido (1900-1969) helped found the Women's Division of the New York United Jewish Appeal. She was vice president of the Jewish Education Committee (1946-1953), and president of the New York section of the National Council of Jewish Women (1949-1953).

Broido died on April 5, 1975 in New York City.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 4, page 203 Who's Who in American Jewry, 1938-1939. E184.J5 W6 vol. 3 Louis Broido papers, Box 34, Folder 1. Biographical vitae

From the guide to the Louis Broido papers, undated, 1922-1976, (American Jewish Historical Society Archives)