5T, Far Rockaway whirl for Chief Rav Lau

A crush of well wishers, rabbis and politicians coursed through the home of Lawrence Mayor Martin Oliner on Monday, many posing in front of a phalanx of photographers with the draw of their attentions, Rabbi David Baruch Lau, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel.

He later left to speak at the White Shul, Kneseth Israel, in Far Rockaway, after mincha.

In a session with local yeshiva and community rabbis at the Oliner home, the chief rabbi discussed his concern that many Jewish people are not connected to their roots. As an example, he recounted the disconnectedness of a man who wanted to get married and did not know that he was a Cohen, oblivious to Jewish laws pertaining to the marriage of Cohanim.

Rabbi Lau’s comments were related to The Jewish Star by men who attended the session.

The office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has liaisons to different communities, said Lau, noting that they should have a liaison to the religious community as well.

The Jewish community in the United States has the same challenges as the Jewish community in Israel, he said. He enjoined the rabbis to have chizuk, strength, to try to confront the challenges. He said they should reach out to the people who are not religious and strive to build bridges and inspire them.

He ended the talk stating that we should all be worthy to live to see Mashiach tzidkaynu (our righteous redeemer).

Rabbi Lau, 48, accrued 68 out 147 votes cast, a majority, when he was elected chief rabbi on July 24, 2013. He and the Sephardic chief rabbi, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, will each serve ten years. They primarily deal with issues pertaining to kashrut, the rabbinical courts and social matters relating to marriage, divorce, conversion and death. Upon his election, Rabbi Lau said, “I pray that I will be everyone’s rabbi and the Chief Rabbinate will be everyone’s rabbinate.”

The National Council of Young Israel congratulated both rabbis upon their election at the time and issued a statement that said, in part: