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Religious Zionist Leaders

OUR SERIES ON LEADERS WHO HAVE SHAPED RELIGIOUS ZIONISM OVER THE LAST 150 YEARS

Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Landau

S hmuel Chaim Landau remains It was at this Congress he formulated population. To this end, he coined

the
leaders
and laid the foundations for the
among
unique
the phrase Torah VeAvoda, a phrase
and originators of Religious
Zionism. The impact he had on the Mizrachi Youth Movement – Tzeirei which became a byword for HaPoel
Mizrachi, and was elected to the
HaMizrachi and later the Bnei Akiva
Mizrachi Movement far surpassed Central Committee. He became Youth Movement. Torah VeAvoda
his shortened life span of 36 years. Editor of the Movement’s paper – signified the synthesis of three ideo-
But more so, he is one of the very few HaKedem and went on to participate logical factors: Torah, Zionism and
whose roots lie within the Chassidic in the 12th Zionist Congress. At the Socialism.
community. He remained a devout 13th Congress, he was elected to the
follower of Mezritch Chassidism Zionist General Council. From 1922 onward, Rabbi Landau ran
(from the Kotzker Rebbe) all his life. the Mizrachi Movement in Poland.
Indeed, it was from there that he He participated in many Zionist
inherited his love for Eretz Yisrael. organizations but devoted most of
The treatise Shalom Yerushalayim, his energies to encouraging aliyah
written by Rebbe Yisrael MiPhilov, and establishing youth training pro-
on the subject of Israel and the grams, to teach them modern agri-
Redemption, was part of Kotzker cultural methods for their eventual
education and an important influence settlement on kibbutzim in Eretz
on Landau. Yisrael. At Mizrachi’s International

World War I caught up with Rabbi Congress in 1925 in Vienna, he was
Landau in Poland. He was first taken elected as a member of the board of
hostage by the Germans and accused, the Pioneer Youth HaPoel HaMiz-
convicted and sentenced to death rachi. To fulfill his obligations, he
on the grounds he was an English and his family made aliyah the same
spy. Managing to escape, he was year, settling in Jerusalem. He quickly
taken captive by the returning Polish established himself as the leader of
army and then accused of being a HaPoel HaMizrachi and published
Bolshevist, but somehow managed many articles explaining the goals of
to get some resident Poles to testify the Movement. However, the first two
on his behalf, thereby assuring his Not only did Rabbi Landau almost years of his directorship were mostly
freedom.
single-handedly bring the Mizrachi devoted to bringing together two
The rise of virulent antisemitism Youth Movement into existence, he opposing factions in the party. With-
with the emergence of the Balfour kept it responsive to its members. out his dedication to the principle of
Declaration in 1917 influenced him Through it, he was able to bring shalom bayit, the Movement could
deeply and he immediately joined much-needed changes into the bur- well have split in two. In 1928, Rabbi
the Polish Mizrachi Movement set geoning Mizrachi so it would stay Landau suddenly took ill as the result
up after World War I. In 1919, he attuned to the emerging second gen- of exhaustion and died at the young
attended the Second Polish Mizrachi eration of Religious Zionists, whose age of 36. The Landau Forest near Sde
Congress and was invited to Warsaw priority became the settling of Eretz Ya’akov and Kiryat Shmuel, a suburb
in 1921 for the Mizrachi Convention. Yisrael by a significant religious of Haifa, are named in his memory. 

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