Born on 13th June 1869 in Krakow, Rafał Saul Landau, son of Hirsch and Jetti, née Wasserberg, was the Councillor at Krakow City Council between 1905-1933, President of the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow between 1938-1939 , a supporter of assimilation and a Chairman of the  Association of Progressive Israelites (1918 – 1939).

Landau graduated from  St.Jack Gymnasium in Krakow (1886), followed by the Faculty of Law at the Jagiellonian University (1890). He obtained his PhD title in 1892.  He started his career as a lawyer in 1898.  During WWI Landau was the Chairman of Jewish Cheap Cooking. Throughout the interwar period, he held the position of the President of the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow (1918-1939). Since  6th January 1933 he was the Chairman of  a Temporary Board of the Jewish Religious Community in Podgórze only to become the Chairman of a Temporary Board of the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow, following the fusion of both Communities  in January 1937. Landau was removed from the office on 3rd June 1939 by the governor of Krakow for backing M.Kwaśniewski’s candidacy as the Mayor of Krakow. After the outbreak of WWII , together with his wife, Landau left for Lviv where they got arrested in 1940 and were deported to the Mariyskaya ASSR. Between 1940-1941 he worked logging.

Rafał Saul Landau died on 22nd January 1941 in Kozików (Mariyskaya ASSR)and was buried at the cemetery in Piekrzejewie.

Picture courtesy of the National Archive in Krakow.