1. David Baruch Lau is an Israeli rabbi who served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 2013 to 2024.
17 Facts About David Lau
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David Lau previously served as the Chief Rabbi of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Israel, and as the Chief Rabbi of Shoham.
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David Lau is the son of Yisrael Meir Lau, who served as the Chief Rabbi of Israel, and of Chaya Ita, the daughter of Yitzchak Yedidya Frankel, the rabbi of Tel Aviv.
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David Lau was a member of the Ezra youth movement in Tel Aviv.
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David Lau studied at Yeshivat HaYishuv HeHadash, and later at Beit Matityau Yeshiva and Ponevezh Yeshiva.
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David Lau was one of the first rabbis in Israel to teach responsa over the internet.
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David Lau has hosted programs over various media platforms on subjects such as the weekly Torah portion and halakhic questions and answers.
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Amram Mitzna 8.
On 24 July 2013, David Lau was elected as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.
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In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, David Lau declared that no one should touch or kiss mezuzot, in order to prevent further spread of the virus.
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David Lau has published articles in journals such as Tehumin, and edited a book of his father's responsa titled Yichil Yisrael.
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David Lau edited and published a book in memory of his grandfather, Yitzchak Yedidya Frankel.
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Dov Lior, the administering rabbi, asserted that David Lau brought papers with answers to previous tests into the examination room.
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David Lau was re-tested in 1994, and passed the exam.
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David Lau's comments were widely condemned as racist, and MK Amram Mitzna and Ethiopian-born MK Pnina Tamanu-Shata called upon him to apologize.
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In 2018, David Lau was accused of trying to appoint his brother-in-law, Mordechai Ralbag, as a replacement for a rabbinical judge who was investigating corruption involving hekdeshot.
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Later that year, during the immediate aftermath of a shooting at a Conservative synagogue, David Lau gave an interview to a Haredi newspaper during which he avoided calling the attack venue a synagogue, referring to it only as "a place with profound Jewish flavor".
17.
David Lau said that the divorce papers had been filed ten years earlier at a religious court in Monsey, New York, and Lau, who was related to his wife, had taken sides in the case.