The Jews of Krakow and its Surrounding Towns

 

News Item -      Photos of Chief Rabbi Lau's family found their home ...after 75 years!

Thanks to ongoing collaboration with the Krakow Archives (Grodzka Street), we were most fortunate to receive high-quality scans of several documents belonging to Rabbi Simcha  Fraenkel-Teumim - the chief Rabbi of Krakow during the early 20th Century. Among these documents were the two images shown right. The writing on the reverse of the photos included the name "Moses Chaim Lau" (see below).

Reverse of Photo

 

Family Portraits
Now, we know that the current Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel is Rabbi Israel Meier LAU, and we also know that the Lau family married into the Fraenkel family. We deduced that it was highly probable that these two images were of Rabbi Lau's family... possibly his parents who perished in the Holocaust. So, on 1st June 2003 after a function attended by Rabbi Lau, Miriam Romm (one of our researchers) handed the Chief Rabbi scans of the original 2 photos as well as an explanatory letter. He was most surprised and very moved by these photos as they were of his parents and brother! 

After a period of 75 years, these photos have finally found their home!

Click here to see the letter of appreciation from Ambassador Lau-Lavie, on behalf of the Lau family.

 

(Our thanks to the Krakow Archives Director Robert Bogusz, as well as  Miriam Romm and Julian Schamroth for making all this possible. Our thanks too, to Rabbi Lau for kindly permitting us put this personal material on the Web)

 

Miriam Romm, Rabbi Lau, and the 2 photos