Bruce Slovin

Bruce Elliott Slovin (December 10, 1935 – August 10, 2025) was an American lawyer, business executive, archivist and philanthropist.

Early life and education Slovin was born in Brooklyn on December 10, 1935, to a Russian and Polish Jewish family. He was one of the three children of Samuel Slovin, who owned an apparel manufacturing business, who was a bookkeeper there. After World War II, the Slovins moved to Mount Vernon, Westchester County. He earned a juris doctor in corporate law and taxation from Harvard Law School in 1960.

Career Slovin spent a few years practicing real estate law,

Slovin's other executive positions include directorships at The Coleman Company, the Andrews Group, Cantel Industries, Power Control Technologies and SIGA Technologies. with whom he had a daughter. During the first 15 years as YIVO chairman, he brought together 5 Jewish organizations under roof, raised around $100 million to build and maintain a new center for the institute and secured $30 million in tax-exempt bonds to support the construction of the center.

Center for Jewish History Slovin brought together 5 Jewish institutions in the U.S. –namely YIVO, the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute and the Yeshiva University Museum– under the name Center for Jewish History. Under his tenure as CJH chairman, the organization had merger talks with New York University and Slovin started a fundraising campaign in 2011 to pay off the center’s $30 million debt, the fundraiser reached its goal in 15 months. In 2001 and 2002, Slovin was a member of the Human Rights Watch Council New York Committee.

The Slovin Foundation Slovin founded The Slovin Foundation in 1988, through which he provided financial assistance to organizations including the American Sephardi Federation, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Museum at Eldridge Street, Cornell University, New York University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Park East Synagogue, the Environmental Defense Fund, Food for the Poor, the American Near East Refugee Aid, the USC Shoah Foundation, the Claims Conference, the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, the Fisher Center at Bard, the New York Public Library, the Historic Districts Council, The Forward, the Smithsonian Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others.

Political positions Slovin donated to Rudy Giuliani during his campaign in the 1997 mayoral election. During the 2001 mayoral election, he declared that he was "a big fan of all four Democrats [running in the race]": "I met each one of them and like them all. They each have their [own] strengths and their own weaknesses – and they have a tough act to follow."