Rabbi L. Elliot Grafman, formerly of Tampa, has been elected to the pulpit of Tremont Temple, Bronx, to succeed Rabbi Irving F. Reichert. Rabbi Grafman was graduated from the Hebrew Union College in 1924 and also from the University of Cincinnati. For the past six years, since receiving the Rabbinical degree, Rabbi Grafman has served as Rabbi of Congregation Schaarai Zedek in Tampa, Florida.
Rabbi Grafman started the first Anglo-Jewish daily in Florida, “The Southern Advocate”. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Tampa Welfare League and Community Chest, Vice-Chairman of the Tampa Section of the American Red Cross, member of the National November Tour Committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Historian of the Alumni Association of the Hebrew Union College. In 1927 Rabbi Grafman received wide prominence throughout the State of Florida for his energetic opposition to the attempt to introduce an anti-evolution statute into the state legislature, and as a direct result of Rabbi Grafman’s efforts the measure was defeated. In 1929 he organized the first “Committee of Goodwill between Jew, Protestant and Catholic” in the state of Florida.
Rabbi Grafman will arrive in New York City the latter part of this month to take over his duties as the new rabbi of Tremont Temple.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
