Beverly Pilgrimage

During the summer of 1946, the Joseph W. Wolf Post 315 received a call from the Beverly National Cemetery to see if they would like to conduct a reburial service for a Jewish flight crew member named Goodman, a navigator. Rabbi Smith conducted the service with a firing squad and bugler from Fort Dix. At the next meeting of the Post it was decided that the Wolf Post would continue this project annually, around Memorial Day. It has continued to the present.

It was learned that approximately 60 Jewish servicemen were interred at Beverly National Cemetery. Every family was contacted and the response was unbelievable. Every family answered and over 100 people attended the first Pilgrimage in May 1947. It continued to be held at the Wolf Post building for 20 years.

When the merger of Joseph W. Wolf Post 315 with the Furer-Barag Post 126 occurred in July 2003 it was agreed that the Beverly Pilgrimage would continued to be held annually by Furer-Barag-Wolf Post 126.

On the 3rd Sunday of May, the Beverly Pilgrimage begins at 9 AM at the Crescent Memorial Park, Highway 130 and Union Avenue, Pennsauken, NJ with a wreath placed at the grave sites and a grave site ceremony followed by a memorial service and playing of taps. The Pilgrimage then proceeds to the Beverly National Cemetery where again a memorial service is conducted, taps is played and a wreath is placed at the individual grave sites with a grave site prayer. Following the ceremony a luncheon banquet is held in Beverly.

All family members of a veteran interred at Crescent Memorial Park or Beverly National Cemetery are welcome to participate in this annual event.