Binyamin Lau

Last updated
Rabbi Dr.
Benyamin Lau
Binyamin Lau (cropped).jpg
Personal
Born
Binyamin Tzvi Lau

Religion Judaism
NationalityIsraeli
OccupationRabbi, community leader
Position Rosh Yeshiva
YeshivaBeit Midrash for Social Justice at Beit Morasha
PositionDirector
OrganisationCenter for Judaism and Society at Beit Morasha
Residence Jerusalem, Israel

Binyamin Tzvi (Benny) Lau, (born October 20, 1961, Tel Aviv) is an Israeli rabbi, community leader, activist, author, and public speaker who lives in Jerusalem. He is the head of 929: Tanach B'yachad and headed the Kehillat Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem for 18 years. He is also the head of the "Human Rights and Judaism in Action Project" at the Israel Democracy Institute. [1] Previously, he was the director of a number of programs at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem, including their Center for Judaism and Society, their Institute for Social Justice, and their Israel Institute for Conversion Policy. [2] He is also a well-known writer, and makes frequent appearances in the media.

Contents

Biography

Lau was born in Tel Aviv to Naphtali Lau-Lavie, the older brother of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, and Joan (née Lunzer). [3] He is a second great-grandson of the scholar Eliezer Liepman Philip Prins (1835-1915). Lau's mother, a sister of Jack Lunzer, was born in England to a prominent family known for preserving the legacy and school of thought of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. Lau's brother Amichai Lau-Lavie founded Storahtelling, a NYC-based Jewish ritual theater company.

Lau grew up in Ramat Gan, and was a student in the Segula School in Bnei Brak. Afterwards, he learned in the Netiv Meir High School in Jerusalem, and participated in the Bnei Akiva Youth Movement. After he completed his high-school studies, he went on to learn in Yeshivat Har Etzion, and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in the Golani Brigade. [3]

Lau teaches at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem, and serves as the head of the Beit Midrash program, alongside Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Brandes. In 2000, he established the Beit Midrash for Women at Beit Morasha, and led that program for five years. [4]

In 2000, Lau moved to Jerusalem, and has been serving as the community rabbi at the Ramban synagogue in the neighborhood of Katamon since 2002. [5]

In 2005, he established the Beit Midrash for Social Justice together with the organization B’Maaglei Tzedek, a non-profit organization that he helped establish, with the goal to imbue issues in Israeli society with Torah learning. He also publishes extensively in national newspapers, scholarly journals, weekly Shabbat pamphlets, and has authored numerous books.

During the years 2007-2009, Lau had a Friday column in the Culture and Literature section of Ha'aretz newspaper. He appears every Friday on Israel's Channel 1 TV on a program for the weekly portion of the Torah, together with Avi Raht. He also frequently appears on interviews in the media.

Lau lectures widely on halakha and social justice [6] at Beit Morasha's Beren College, and served as the rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem until 2019. [7] In October 2020, Lau published "Couplehood and Relationships for Members of the LGBTQ+ Community." The document was intended to bring about a process of integration for members of the LGBTQ community into the wider Orthodox community. [8]

Published works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rabbinic literature</span> Jewish literature attributed to rabbis

Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term Sifrut Chazal. This more specific sense of "Rabbinic literature"—referring to the Talmudim, Midrash, and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts—is how the term is generally intended when used in contemporary academic writing. The terms mefareshim and parshanim (commentaries/commentators) almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yechiel Michel Epstein</span> Lithuanian rabbi (1829–1908)

Yechiel Michel ha-Levi Epstein (24 January 1829 – 25 March 1908), often called "the Aruch haShulchan" after his magnum opus, Aruch HaShulchan, was a Rabbi and posek in Lithuania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aharon Lichtenstein</span> Rabbi & Rosh Yeshiva

Aharon Lichtenstein was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva who was an authority in Jewish law (Halakha).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yisrael Meir Lau</span> Polish-born Israeli rabbi and Holocaust survivor (b. 1937)

Yisrael Meir Lau is a Holocaust survivor who served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. He was previously Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel. After his tenure as chief rabbi, he was appointed chairman of Yad Vashem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponevezh Yeshiva</span>

Ponevezh Yeshiva, often pronounced as Ponevitch Yeshiva, is a yeshiva founded in 1908 in Ponevezh, Lithuania, and located today in Bnei Brak, Israel since 1944. The yeshiva has over three thousand students, including those of affiliated institutions, and is considered one of the leading Litvish yeshivas in Israel.

Reuvein Margolies, was an Israeli author, Talmudic scholar and head of the Rambam library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yeshivat Har Etzion</span> Hesder Yeshiva located in Israel.

Yeshivat Har Etzion, commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush", is a hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced Torah study in the world and with a student body of roughly 480, it is one of the largest hesder yeshivot in the West Bank.

The Yeshiva of Cape Town is a kollel and yeshiva established in 1994. Its full title is "The Rabbi Cyril and Ann Harris Yeshiva of Cape Town", named for the late Chief Rabbi. It is based in the Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation, in the suburb of Sea Point, Cape Town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koren Publishers Jerusalem</span> Israeli publishing house

Koren Publishers Jerusalem is an Israeli publisher of Jewish religious texts. It was established in 1961 by Eliyahu Koren, with the aim of publishing the first Hebrew Bible designed, edited, printed, and bound by Jews in nearly 500 years. It produced The Koren Bible in 1962, The Koren Siddur in 1981, and the Koren Sacks Siddur in 2009, in addition to numerous editions of these books and other religious texts in Hebrew, English, and other languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Cooper</span>

Levi Cooper is an Orthodox Jewish teacher, author, and community leader who lives in Tzur Hadassah, Israel. He is a faculty member of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where he teaches Midrash, Talmud, Rambam, and Hasidism. Originally from Australia, Cooper lectures extensively on the topics of law and Halakha, Jewish spirituality and Hasidic thought. Since 1996, he has also served as a historian with Heritage Seminars. He has studied at Chabad, Yeshivat Sha'alvim, the Kollel at Bar-Ilan University and Beit Morasha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amram Aburbeh</span> Israeli-Moroccan rabbi

Amram Aburbeh, also spelled Abourabia and Aburabia, was the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic congregation in Petah Tikva, Israel and author of Netivei Am, a collection of responsa, sermons, and Torah teachings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yaakov Ades</span> Israeli Sephardi rabbi and rosh yeshiva

Yaakov Hai Zion Ades, also spelled Adas or Adess, was a Sephardi Hakham, Rosh Yeshiva, and Rabbinical High Court judge. As rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem, he raised thousands of students, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef; and Rabbi Yehuda Hakohen Rabin, Chief Rabbi of Bukharan Jewry in Israel.

Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg,, known by the acronym הרב שג"ר HaRav Shagar, was a Torah scholar and a religious postmodern thinker. His thought was characterized by Neo-Hasidism and postmodernism. In 1996 he established, together with Rabbi Yair Dreifuss, Yeshivat Siach Yitzchak, in Jerusalem. The yeshiva later moved to Givat HaDagan in Efrat and HaRav Shagar remained the head of the establishment until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakov Nagen</span>

Yakov Meir Nagen is an Israeli rabbi and author. Nagen is a leader in interfaith dialogue and in particular interfaith peace initiatives between Judaism and Islam. He is the Director of the Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and the Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity. Nagen also teaches at Yeshivat Otniel and has written extensively about Jewish philosophy and Talmud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yisroel Hager (the second)</span> Grand Rabbi of Vizhnitz Bnei Brak, Israel

Yisroel Hager, is one of the two Grand Rabbis of Vizhnitz in Bnei Brak and a member of Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudat Israel.

Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern of Kotzk-Sokolov was an Admor and Rosh yeshiva, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and a leader of Polish Jewry before the Holocaust, who died shortly after the war began.

Rabbi Amichai Yehuda Lau-Lavie is a social entrepreneur, human rights activist and LGBT, conservative rabbi, founder and spiritual leader of the Lab/Shul community in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esti Rosenberg</span>

Esti Rosenberg is an American-Israeli Orthodox Rabbanit who is the founder and head of the Migdal Oz seminary. She is the daughter of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and Dr. Tovah Soloveitchik and the granddaughter of Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

References

  1. "Rabbi Dr. Benjamin (Binyamin) Lau - Rabbi Benny Lau - the Israel Democracy Institute". Archived from the original on 2014-06-12. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  2. "Beit Morasha - Faculty and Facilitators". Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  3. 1 2 Rotem, Tamar (2005-03-06). "Misleading our youth". Haaretz. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  4. Beit Morasha "בית מורשה". Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-01-30..
  5. "Ramban synagogue webpage". Archived from the original on 2014-07-16. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
  6. "Rabbi Benny Lau, Charlie Biton to speak at TA tent protest". Jerusalem Post. 2011-08-06. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  7. Singer, Benjy. "Rabbi Benny Lau Parts from Ramban Synagogue After 18 Fruitful Years". Jpost. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  8. Greenwood, Hanan. Israel Hayom https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/10/12/same-sex-couples-may-become-parents-rabbi-rules/ . Retrieved 13 October 2020.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. "Rabbi Benjamin (Benny) Lau - Guide Dogs in the Synagogue and at the Western Wall". en.idi.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  10. "Marriage in Sign Language". en.idi.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2019-12-04.