Israel Meir Lau was born in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. He was Holocaust survivor, freed by US troops from the Buchenwald (Germany) concentration camp in 1945.

Yisrael Meir Lau served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003, Chairman of Yad Vashem, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel.

David Baruch Lau – son of Rabbi Meir Lau – since 2013 is the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.