Yisrael Meir Lau

Israel Meir Lau (Hebrew ישראל מאיר לאו; born June 1, 1937 in Piotrków, Poland) is the current Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv in Israel. Previously, he was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Israel Meir Lau was born into a rabbinic family. His father Moshe Chaim Lau was rabbi of Piotrków. Meir Lau and his brother Naphtali survived as only one of her family in the Holocaust Buchenwald concentration camp. Both emigrated to Palestine in 1945.

After the study of the Talmud in Jerusalem ( at the Yeshiva Kol Torah ) in Zichron Ya'akov and Bnei Brak Meir Lau was ordained as a rabbi in 1971 and worked in Tel Aviv and Netanya. From 1988 to 1993 he was chief rabbi and head of the Beth Din of Tel Aviv / Jaffa. Subsequently, he held the office of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel and, after the end of his term of office again in 2003 Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv.

2005 Israel Meir Lau was awarded the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement. In the same year his Bar - Ilan University awarded an honorary doctorate. In 2008 he was appointed after the death of Josef Lapid as the new Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council.