Rabbi Israel Meir Lau

(1937- )

Rabbi Israel Meir Lau was born in 1937 in Pyotrekov, Poland. A survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, he lost both of his parents in the Holocaust. In 1946 he immigrated to Israel, where he lived with his uncle and studied at a state religious school in Kiryat Shmuel. He then studied at three yeshivas: Kol Torah in Jerusalem, Knesset Hizkiya in Zichron Ya'akov and Ponovitz in Bnei Brak.

1971 Ordained as a rabbi

 

1971 Headed Or Torah congregation in Tel Aviv

 

1971-79 Rabbi of North Tel Aviv

 

1979-88 Chief Rabbi of Netanya

 

1983 Elected a member of Chief Rabbinical Council, serving on committee for medical ethics

 

1988-93 Chief Rabbi and President of the Rabbinical Court of Tel Aviv-Yafo

 

1993 Elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel

Rabbi Lau's publications include Yahadut - Halacha Le'maase (1975) on the practice of Judaism and Yachel Israel (1993), two volumes on medicine, ethics and Jewish customs.

Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry