Ralph Goldman, who as a young man helped shepherd the State of Israel into existence and later devoted his professional life to bringing humanitarian relief to Jews across the globe, died Oct. 7 at 100.
Goldman, who worked with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee since 1968 — he served twice as its chief executive and still held the title of honorary executive vice president — died in Jerusalem, where he had lived for decades.
“Ralph was an iconic and transformative figure who embodied the notion that all ‘Jews are responsible for one another’ throughout his long and extraordinary life,” said JDC’s CEO, Alan Gill.
Born on Sept. 1, 1914, in the town of Lechovitz in what is now Ukraine, Goldman was 11 when he immigrated with his family to a Jewish suburb of Boston.
As a young man, Goldman was involved in local Zionist endeavors. He was awarded a fellowship to spend a year in British Mandate Palestine, where he participated in the establishment of Kibbutz Hanita in the Galilee.
Goldman returned to the United States and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s in social work from Harvard.
He served in the Army from 1942 to 1945, first in the United States, then in England. At the conclusion of World War II, he was stationed in Germany, where he was assigned to assist Jews in displaced persons camps.
He was active in the New York operation of pre-state Israel’s army, the Haganah, helping to buy and lease airplanes and ships to transport immigrants from Europe to Palestine, and assisting in the effort to recruit personnel for the nascent force. Through this work Goldman met and befriended Teddy Kollek, later the longtime mayor of Jerusalem.
Goldman became a close confidant and adviser to Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and in 1951 was in charge of the prime minister’s initial visit to the U.S. as head of state.
He later served as executive director of the American-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Israel Education Fund, an arm of the United Jewish Appeal that helped establish high schools in Israel.
Goldman joined the JDC in 1968 when he became the associate director of its Israel operation, establishing its department for the care of the elderly and introducing innovations in early childhood care. He served as the chief executive of JDC from 1976 until 1985, and again from 1986 until 1988.
Goldman was a driving force in JDC’s low-profile activities behind the Iron Curtain, and in the 1970s and 1980s brought JDC programs back into the open in communist countries. He led sensitive negotiations with Soviet leaders, navigating JDC’s return to what would become the former Soviet Union almost immediately after its collapse.
Asked in 2012 how he pulled off such negotiations without training or accreditation, Goldman said, “I was representing the Jewish people. I couldn’t afford to fail.”
Goldman is survived by two daughters, a daughter-in-law and six grandchildren, as well as great-grandchildren. His son, David Ben-Rafael, a senior Israeli diplomat, was killed in the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina.