HENDL LANDAU

HENDL LANDAU (ca. 1892-ca. 1941)

            He was born in Oder (Ūdrai?), near Ponevezh (Panevėžys), Lithuania.  He studied economics and law in Germany, and there also received his doctoral degree.  Over the years 1918-1920, he was living in Kiev, studying the social and economic state of the Jews in Tsarist Russia.  In the 1920s he practiced as a lawyer in Ponevezh.  He was one of the most prominent leaders in the Folks-partey (People’s party) and a deputy to the Lithuanian parliament, where he acquired a reputation for standing up against anti-Semitism.  He was an important leader in the Jewish people’s banks.  He published articles in Folksblat (People’s newspaper) in Kovno on economics and legal topics.  He was a member of the economics and statistics section of YIVO.  He published such works as: “Der onteyl fun idn in der rusish-urkrainish tsuker-industrye” (The role of Jews in the Russian-Ukrainian sugar industry), Shriftn far ekonomik un statistik (Writings on economics and statistics) (Berlin) 1 (1928), pp. 98-104; “Yidn in der antviklung fun kredit un transport in rusland” (Jews in the development of credit and transport in Russia), Shriftn far ekonomik un statistik (Vilna) 2 (1932), pp. 93-105; “Yidn in ruslender naft-industrye un naft-handl” (Jews in the Russian oil industry and oil business), Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) (Vilna) 14.3-4 (March-April 1939), pp. 269-85.  During the Soviet and later Nazi occupation of Lithuania, he remained in his hometown and was, according to his fellow townsmen, killed by the Germans around September 1941.

Sources: Professor B. Brutskus, in Tsukunft (New York) (December 1930); L. Shimoni, in the anthology Lite (Lithuania), vol. 1 (New York, 1951), col. 258; M. Mandelman, in Lite, col. 1357; information from Yudl Mark in New York.

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