Rabbi Israel Meir Lau

28 Apr 2003
 
     
Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
 
  Rabbi Israel Meir Lau


  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

1971-1979 Rabbi of North Tel Aviv

1979-1988 Chief Rabbi of Netanya

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

1988-1993 Chief Rabbi and President of the Rabbinical Court of Tel Aviv-Yafo

1993-2003 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.