Bush's mysterious Holmby Hills buddy

He's Elliott Broidy, dubbed by the Jewish Journal as "the mystery man of the Israeli economy" and just as mysterious among the local business crowd. Tonight, he'll be hosting a fundraiser at his Holmby Hills estate that President Bush is expected to attend. Broidy has numerous Socal credentials - he is a member of the Board of Counselors for the USC Marshall School of Business’ Center for Investment Studies. Also at USC (he graduated with a B.S. in accounting) he is a trustee of the Hillel Foundation, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, as well as the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College. His wife Robin is a former Fox executive.

Needless to say, he is a major Bush pal, having forked over $250,000 for the president's inaugural ceremony. In January, Broidy was appointed to serve on the Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Council.

But what about his business? Well, he's been an independent investor since 1991, according to one of his firm's Web sites, and through his Century City private investment company, Broidy Capital Management, he invests in marketable and private equity securities. And that's about all I know. No clues about how this guy made his money. A JJ story earlier this year says that he has raised $800 million to boost private enterprise in Israel. He told the newspaper that "a strong and vital Israel is important to the United States, to American Jewry, and to me and my family."

Broidy’s proposal to establish a large private equity fund for investments in Israel’s “old” economy — agriculture, manufacturing, capital management — found a warm welcome among government officials at a time when most investors were shunning the strife-racked Jewish state.

Broidy, the story notes, "doesn’t fit the stereotype of the hard-charging American capitalist. He is soft-spoken, reluctant to speak of his personal life or accomplishments, and categorically refuses to say a bad word about anyone. 'I am a positive person and I don’t like to criticize,' he said, noting that his main purpose in talking to The Journal was to encourage other large-scale American investors to explore the growing, profitable Israeli market."