Chaim Landau

Chaim Landau was born in 1916 in Kraków

Landau was born in Kraków to Berta and Pinchas Landau, a Zionist industrialist. He studied at a traditional cheder, then at the Tachkemoni school and the Hebrew Gymnasium in Kraków.

He moved to the Land of Israel in 1935 and studied at the Technion in Haifa, graduating as a construction engineer. From 1936 to 1939 he chaired the national student bloc at the Technion. He later worked in the public works department of the British Mandate government.

He was active in the Irgun from 1935 and served as its chief of staff until it disbanded in 1948. In 1947 he represented the Irgun with Menachem Begin and Shmuel Katz at a meeting with UNSCOP.

Landau helped found Herut and was elected to the first Knesset, serving until 1977. In 1969 he became Minister of Development under Golda Meir but resigned months later over the Rogers Plan. Begin appointed him minister without portfolio in 1977 and Minister of Transport in 1979.

He left political life after the 1981 elections and died months later. Highway 5 and a bridge in Tel Aviv are named after him. His son Uzi Landau became a Knesset member and minister.