JDC Celebrates Ted Comet’s 100th Birthday

Ralph Goldman, long-time Chief Executive Officer, had a famous line, “Once a Jointnik, always a Jointnik.” Few people illustrate this better than Ted Comet, whose 100th birthday was celebrated in June by JDC leadership and staff. Ted became a Jointnik in 1946 when he went to France as a student volunteer in a JDC-funded program to rehabilitate Jewish war orphans run by the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). There he met and developed a deep friendship with Elie Wiesel, a teenage Holocaust survivor. Of Ted’s experience in postwar France, historian Laura Hobson Faure said, “I had the honor of meeting and getting to know Ted Comet in 2005 when I interviewed him for my book, A “Jewish Marshall Plan,” on his role in France after the Holocaust to help Jewish orphans. What an amazing, vivacious person! It is hard to sum up in a few lines the wisdom I learned from him, but one of the many things that has stayed with me were his words on his experiences in postwar Paris:

“It was an exciting place for a young person to be. With so much going on you felt that life could be wondrous and full of possibilities. It was quite a contrast to the children’s homes where we saw the consequences of death and destruction and where we tried to perform a healing role.”

Upon his return to the United States, Ted got his master’s degree in social work and went into Jewish communal service. He was the Director of the American Zionist Youth Council (AZYC) from 1956 to 1968. While there he founded the Israel Day Parade to show support for the State of Israel and an Israel Folk Dance Festival, which celebrated its 73rd anniversary this year. This was followed by a leadership position at the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds (now JFNA), where he established a young leadership division to help nurture the Jewish community’s next generations of talent. During that time, he also was the volunteer coordinator at the Conference on Soviet Jewry and organized the first major public demonstration of solidarity.

In 1990, Ted was appointed associate executive vice president of JDC, a position he continues to hold in an honorary capacity. In this role, he spearheaded numerous missions to Jewish communities across the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, North Africa, India, and Latin America. Reflecting upon Ted’s special celebration and his long association with the organization, JDC President Annie Sandler said:

“It is an extraordinary honor to celebrate Ted on his 100th birthday, a milestone that reflects a century of wisdom, kindness, and dedication to the Jewish community. Ted is not just an inspiration; he is a beacon of hope whose smile has illuminated the path for countless individuals through the work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. His life has touched the hearts of both young and old, leaving an indelible mark on all who have had the privilege of knowing him. For 30 of those remarkable years, I have been fortunate to witness firsthand the profound impact he has made. Ted embodies everything the JDC stands for—he is a living testament to Jewish history, a keeper of wisdom that transcends generations, and a true servant of humanity. Above all, Ted is a mensch, and we are incredibly blessed to celebrate 100 years of his life, marked by service, compassion, and unwavering optimism.”