Future Plans

METEORIC RISE This year the Komet family is marking 100 years of architecture beginning with Yechiel in Vienna continuing with his son Yisrael who moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1933 and was one of the architects in the period of the founding of the state and Yisrael’s son Yechiel — born into the line in 1950 and partnering with his father until Yisrael’s passing in 1985. As part of his job in pre-state Palestine and in the early years of the state Yisrael Komet was responsible for planning private buildings public buildings yeshivos educational institutions — and dozens of shuls (Photos: Ezra Trabelski Komet Family Archives)

I t was the beginning of the 20th century and as the gusty winds of war were blowing through Europe and the Austro-Hungarian Empire spread its wings over broad swathes of the continent thousands of Hungarian Jews — at least those with the means and ability — migrated to Vienna.

While the Austrian capital was a large and prosperous city it still couldn’t provide the needs of all the new arrivals. Soon more than 8 000 Jews were concentrated in one neighborhood without shuls or mikvaos to serve them and no one to take responsibility for their basic religious needs.

Well almost no one. Reb Yechiel Komet affectionately called Reb Zeideh was an affluent real estate magnate who had moved to Vienna surveyed what the community was lacking and got right to work. First he used his own funds to convert the cellar beneath his home to a mikveh. He then set his sights on building a proper shul and having extensive knowledge in the field of construction he personally oversaw the process until it was complete. This was the first shul to be built in the Viennese Prater Quarter.