Rev. John Grauel papers

John Stanley Grauel (1917-1986) was born in Worcester, MA, and graduated from a theological seminary in Maine in 1941 as a Methodist Minister. He joined the Christian Council of Palestine (later the American Christian Palestine Committee) in 1942, and in 1944 he joined the Haganah’s efforts to smuggled European Jews into Palestine. He was included in the mission of the Exodus 1947, a former naval vessel, the President Warfield, which was acquired by the Haganah, renamed, and sent on an ill-fated mission to transport Holocaust survivors to Palestine illegally. Grauel was arrested by the British Navy when the ship was intercepted by British destroyers, and he gave testimony before the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine that Golda Meir credited with changing the sympathies of the UN in favor of a Jewish state. The State of Israel awarded Grauel the Humanity Medal, the Fighter for Israel Medal and the Medal of Jerusalem.