MIKHL (MICHAEL) LANDAU

MIKHL (MICHAEL) LANDAU (January 7, 1895-November 16, 1976)

           He was born in Herloi (Hârlău), Romania.  He studied law at the Universities of Jassy (Iași), Romania, and Grenoble, France; and he later practiced as a lawyer in Kishinev, Bessarabia.  From his student years, he was active in the Zionist movement in Romania.  He served as secretary general of the Federation of Jews in Romania (1928-1933).  He was elected three times in succession from Bessarabia as a deputy to the Romanian parliament.  From 1935 he was living in Israel.  He was a leader of the Progressive Party and a cofounder of the Association of Romanian Jews in the state of Israel.  He edited the daily newspapers Der yud (The Jew) (1920-1922) and Unzer tsayt (Our time) (1922-1924) in Kishinev.  He co-edited the weekly newspaper Erd un arbet (Land and labor) in Kishinev (1925-1933).  He served as the Romanian correspondent for Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York (1921-1924), Di idishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires, and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal, among others.  He also wrote articles for Haarets (The land) and in Romanian for Viața Noastră (Our life) in Tel Aviv.  In book form (in Yiddish and Romanian): Der shvartsbard protses (The Schwartzbard trial) (Kishinev, 1927), 64 pp.  He also authored three autobiographical volumes: Maavak ḥayai (The struggle of life) (Masada: Ramat Gan, 1970), 227 pp.; Ishim uzemanim (People and times) (Masada: Ramat Gan, 1975), 206 pp.; Kesem hamisparim (The magic of numbers) (Tel Aviv: Eked, 1975), 169 pp.  He worked as director of the state lottery in Israel.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), p. 26; D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 5 (Tel Aviv, 1952), pp. 2951-52; Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tsukunft (New York) (November 1961); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955), p. 428.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 319.]