Shepard Broad was born in Pinsk, in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) as Szmuel Bobrowice.
[1] He trained as a tailor's apprentice, but Eastern Europe offered little opportunity to a young Jewish boy.
Stark offered to adopt the boy, but Broad was determined to find an uncle in New York.
On January 1, 1946, he founded the law firm of Broad and Cassel, which continues to this day with offices throughout Florida.
[1] As World War II drew to an end, Broad, Ben-Gurion and their colleagues met in New York City and created an underground infrastructure to raise funds for Israel, provide weapons for its eventual 1947–1949 Palestine war and help Holocaust survivors and others reach what was then called Palestine.
The $600,000 asking price seemed out of reach, so Broad traded his interest, 2+1⁄2 floors, of the downtown Biscayne Building for the swamp.
[3] In 1995, he donated $174,350 for computer equipment at the new Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor Elementary School, which was named for his late wife.