ר׳ ישראל מאיר לאו

ר׳ ישראל מאיר לאו (born 1937) is a Holocaust survivor, author, communal rabbi, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel and chairman of the Yad Vashem Council. Born in Piotrków Trybunalski to ר׳ משה חיים לאו and Chaya, he was known as Lulek. His father and much of the community were murdered at Treblinka. In 1944 his mother saved him during a selection by directing him toward his older brother Naphtali; she was murdered at Ravensbrück. The brothers endured the Częstochowa labor camp and Buchenwald, where American forces liberated the eight-year-old child in April 1945. They reached Mandatory Palestine that summer. Raised initially by his uncle ר׳ מרדכי פוגלמן in Kiryat Motzkin, he later studied at Kol Torah with ר׳ שלמה זלמן אויערבאך and at Knesset Hezekiah and Ponovezh. Ordained in 1960, he advanced through synagogue and neighborhood rabbinates in Tel Aviv, became chief rabbi of Netanya in 1979, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv–Jaffa in 1988, and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. He returned to the Tel Aviv post from 2005 until retiring in 2018. His rabbinate emphasized public communication, Holocaust memory, interreligious dialogue and engagement across religious and secular Israeli society. Awarded the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement in 2005, he has chaired the Yad Vashem Council since 2008. His autobiography אל תשלח ידך אל הנער connects the child survivor’s memory to his later religious leadership.