Milton Gralla, philanthropist and publisher, dies at 84

NEW YORK (JTA) — Milton Gralla, a Jewish philanthropist and longtime publisher of business magazines, died in Boca Raton, Fla., on July 11. He was 84.

As an active philanthropist for Jewish causes, Gralla and his wife, Shirley, helped support a number of initiatives at Brandeis University, including the Gralla Fellows Program for journalists, the Genesis program for high school students, the Summer Institute for Israel Studies and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. The Grallas also funded the Gralla Media Room, which allows leading Brandeis faculty to conduct television interviews from campus.

“Milton Gralla not only helped Brandeis and our students through scholarship support, he played a key role in creating programs at the university that enriched the lives of Jews and others around the world,” said Nancy Winship, senior vice president of institutional advancement at Brandeis, according to BrandeisNOW.

Gralla also supported a number of organizations in the United States, Israel and the former Soviet Union. The Grallas supported the freedom flight of 250 Russian Jewish immigrants to Israel. Gralla chaired the 1994 Salute to Israel Parade in New York.

The middle son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Gralla began his journalism career as a sports stringer for The New York Times. He was appointed to the JTA board of directors in 1986 when he was the executive vice president of Gralla Publications, which publishes 19 national business magazines.

In addition to being a board member of JTA, he served on the boards of Boys Town Jerusalem, Yeshiva University, UJA-Federation, World ORT, The New York Jewish Week newspaper and the Solomon Schechter School of Bergen County (N.J.).