Mr. David Landau, z”l

The Jewish media world was shocked and saddened Tuesday by the passing of David Landau, 67, founder and editor-in-chief of the English-language Haaretz newspaper in Israel.

David Landau was born in London in Tammuz 5707/1947. His grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Pinchas Landau, z”l, was a well-known askan in Agudas Yisroel and a devoted Gerrer Chassid who was very close to the Imrei Emes, zy”a.

He grew up in Golders Green, London. In the early 1960s he studied at the Slabodka yeshivah in Bnei Brak. Later he learned in the Chevron yeshivah in Yerushalayim. In 1970, after completing a degree in law at University College London, he settled permanently in Yerushalayim. He would dedicate many hours each day to learning Torah.

Landau worked as a volunteer intern for The Jerusalem Post in 1967, after refusing to return home during the Six-Day War despite his family’s entreaties. Landau was the first Israeli journalist to interview Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

He served as the diplomatic correspondent for The Jerusalem Post for 12 years, and its managing editor for four years.

In 1993 he joined Haaretz and in 1997 became the founding editor of the Haaretz English edition. He served as Haaretz editor-in-chief from 2004 to 2008 and continued writing columns for the paper until last year.

After leaving Haaretz, Landau became the Israeli correspondent for The Economist.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honors for services in advancing U.K.–Israel understanding and peace in the Middle East.

He is survived by, ybl”c, his wife, Jackie, and their three children.

This article appeared in print on page 24 of the January 28th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.