Blau, Moshe

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BLAU, MOSHE

BLAU, MOSHE (1885–1946), *Agudat Israel leader; brother of Amram *Blau. Blau, who was born in Jerusalem, directed the Agudat Israel office there from 1924 until his death. He served as a member of the movement's world executive and edited its weekly Kol Yisrael ("Voice of Israel"). From 1933 to 1945 he headed the independent, ultra-Orthodox Edah Ḥaredit (Orthodox community). Despite the community's segregation policy, he cooperated with yishuv leaders in representing Jewish interests in dealings with the Mandate government. Blau represented Agudat Israel before various British and international commissions which dealt with the Palestine problem. In 1946, while on a rescue mission to Jewish survivors of the war, Blau fell ill and died in Messina. He was taken to Jerusalem for burial. He wrote Ammuda di-Nehora ("Column of Light," 1932), a biography of Rabbi Y.Ḥ. *Sonnenfeld, and Al Ḥomotayikh Yerushalayim ("Upon thy Walls, O Jerusalem," 1946), autobiographical notes and memoirs.

bibliography:

A. Blau, Shomer ha-Ḥomot (1957); Tidhar, 1 (1947), 175–6.

[Zvi Kaplan]