Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. (Photo: Jorge Novominsky, KKL-JNF Photo Archive)
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau - former Chief Rabbi of Israel; Israel Prize recipient for Lifetime Achievement; Yad VaShem Council Chairman; and trailblazer for Israeli and Diaspora Judaism - was on July 2, 2020 inscribed in KKL-JNF’s Golden Book. The Golden Book is a treasure trove of Jewish and Israeli heritage. It contains a record of leaders and other important influential figures in the history of the state. Inclusion in the Golden Book is considered a badge of honor.
Rabbi Lau was born in Poland to a prominent rabbinic family. His parents and all but one of his siblings perished in the Holocaust. Upon liberation, Lau was the youngest prisoner to have survived the Buchenwald concentration camp. At the age of eight, he immigrated to Israel as an orphan. After growing up in Israel’s rabbinical community, he himself became a major figure who is admired both at home and abroad. He has encouraged, by personal example, increased connection between religious and secular Jews, between Israeli and Diaspora Jews and between adherents of different religions.
At a moving ceremony held at his home, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau signed his name in the Golden Book with the help of KKL-JNF’s official calligrapher, and was thus inscribed in the annals of Israel. Speaking with emotion, he said, “It’s hard to imagine the birth of the State of Israel without Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, and I feel greatly privileged and honored to be inscribed in KKL-JNF’s Golden Book.”
Rabbi Lau now joins the generational chain of leaders and other influential figures who have left their mark upon Israel’s history, society and Zionist development, who are also inscribed in KKL-JNF’s Golden Book.