Amidst increasing socio-political-religious turmoil in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and attendant anti-Semitism worldwide, it is encouraging to know that there are still interfaith efforts for a strong Israel and Jewish people. Allies today would find an outstanding example in the late Reverend John Stanley Grauel.
In connection with its current exhibit, “Jersey Homesteads to Roosevelt: An Experiment in Cooperative Living,” the Jewish Heritage Museum will present a lecture and slide show on Reverend Grauel.
WHEN: Sunday, January 25, 2:00 pm (Snow date: Feb 1).
WHERE: The Jewish Heritage Museum is located at 310 Mounts Corner Drive in Freehold. It is a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization and is handicapped accessible.
ADMISSION:$5.00 for members, $7.00 for non-members.
For more information or to make a reservation, call the Museum at 732.252.6990 or visit www.jhmomc.org to make reservations online.
John Grauel was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. In the early 1940s, he gave up a ministry in Maine to join the American Christian Palestine Committee, an organization dedicated to the establishment of a Jewish state. He participated in recruitment activities for the secret Haganah (shadow Israeli army), visited displaced persons camps, and worked as a seaman and chief steward of the famous ship, Exodus 47, when she was carrying over 4,500 illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Grauel’s later testimony, about that voyage, before the United Nations is credited with helping lead the organization to its Israel statehood recommendation.
For several decades before his death, Mr. Grauel was a popular speaker about Israel and the Holocaust. Some of the fundraising events and programs that he attended were sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal and Bonds for Israel. He died at his home in Roosevelt at age 86.
