People - Keith Landy

Keith M Landy (1950-2017), who was born in Coventry, was a Canadian lawyer and former national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress and Governor of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.

Keith Landy was born in Coventry, where his father, the Revd David Louis Landy (1915-1987), was the minister of the Coventry Hebrew Congregation at Barras Lane Synagogue. David Landy became the minister of the Oudtshoorn Synagogue in Western Cape, South Africa, and later a congregational rabbi in Toronto, Canada, where he died in 1987.

Keith Landy moved with his parents to South Africa and then to Canada, where he studied law at the University of Windsor. He was the senior partner and founding partner of the Toronto law firm of Landy, Marr, Kats.

Landy was national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 2001 to 2004, and also served as a vice-president of the World Jewish Congress and chair of the CJC’s War Crimes Committee (2008).

As chair of CJC Ontario, Landy successfully lobbied for the Holocaust Memorial Day – Yom Hashoah – Act in Ontario. He was a delegate to the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia in Durban, and he was a member of the Canadian delegation to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference on antisemitism in 2004.

Landy received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. The Law Society of Upper Canada awarded him the Lincoln Alexander Award in 2005 for his commitment to public and community service and his work for human rights and religious tolerance. He died in 2017.

Thanks to Patrick Comerford for this biography

See these Links for further information:  (Note: These are external links for which we have no responsibility for the content)

• Patrick Comerford Article on Coventry Jewish History

• Keith Landy Wikipedia Page

• Keith Landy biography on Landy Marr Kats LLP

• Keith Landy obituary in Canadian Jewish News