Landau, Wolf

German rabbi and author; born at Dresden March 1, 1811; died there Aug. 24, 1886; grandson of Chief Rabbi David Landau (known also as R. David Polak). After receiving his first Talmudic training from his father he continued his studies under Chief Rabbi Abraham Löwy of Dresden, and later under Aaron Kornfeld at Jenikau, Bohemia; from 1830 he attended the gymnasium at Dresden; and in 1836 entered the University of Berlin. On his return to Dresden, Landau was appointed teacher at the religious school there; and when, in 1854, Zacharias Frankel became director of the Jewish Theological Seminary at Breslau, Landau was unanimously elected as his successor in the Dresden chief rabbinate.

Landau, like his friend Frankel, inclined toward historic Judaism, but assumed an attitude midway between the two religious currents, especially at the synod in Leipsic. The following are his works: "Die Petition des Vorstandes der Israelitischen Gemeinde zu Dresden und Ihr Schicksal in der Zweiten Kammer," Dresden, 1843; "Ahawath Nezach" (Leipsic, 1875), a work on funeral rites. He published also several addresses, of which may be mentioned those in commemoration of King Frederick August II. (ib. 1854); of Dr. B. Beer (Dresden, 1861); and of Clara Bondi (see Kayserling, "Bibliothek Jüdischer Kanzelredner," ii. 22 et seq.). Besides, he wrote several theological and historical essays, as: "Anforderungen des Glaubens und der Theologischen Wissenschaft," "Bilder aus dem Leben und Wirken der Rabbinen," and "Ueber Thierquälerei nach den Grundsätzen des Judenthums," which appeared in Frankel's "Zeitschrift für die Religiösen Interessen des Judenthums," in "Monatsschrift," in "Allg. Zeit. des Jud." and in other periodicals.

Together with Kaempf and Philippson, Landau published a people's Bible ("Volksbibel").

Bibliography:

  * Kayserling, Bibliothek Jüdischer Kanzelredner, ii. 114 et seq.



S. M. K.