Can Yoeli Landau’srecipe for success reset the troubled relationship between Israel’s chareidipopulation and the state?
These are just three of many questions that hummed in my mind as I reached out to the philanthropist who’s captured headlines and conversations in recent months.
Yoeli Landau, a Satmar chassid in his mid-forties, represents a young generation of chareidi moguls who aren’t looking to hide — not their affluence, and not their religious identity. After a rocky start in life, he built a fortune in the nursing home business, and promptly began to dispense vast sums of money toward a multitude of projects and tzedakah causes.
Yoeli’s grand deals, appetite for risk, and lavish generosity tend to keep him in the news: be it the mainstream media, business sites, or the less official but often more passionate heimish news circuit. He sees the blessing of money as the fruit of a mentality and ideology, which, he says, enables him to dedicate more than 50 percent of his immense income to tzedakah.
In the last year, his financial success has also granted him a rare role: advising some of the chareidi world’s leading rabbanim and admorim on perhaps the thorniest issue they face. Some justify this new advisory role as a privilege that comes along with the territory of mega-wealth. Others are harshly critical — “Your job is to give, not to guide.” Some appreciate what he is doing and others feel a decided discomfort with his very public persona. The common denominator: When it comes to Yoeli Landau, everyone has an opinion.
Create a free account to keep reading.
