Amichai Lau-Lavie

On June 23, 2021, Lau participated in Israel's first television LGBTI Pride program on Israel's Network 13.

While an out gay man, Lau does not align himself with the LGBT community in Israel. For example, in an interview with Glatz in July 2019, he went against the words of the Minister of Education, Rafi Peretz, regarding conversion therapies. Lau said "there are people whose conversion therapies are their choice, but as the Minister of Education in Israel of 2019, this is an opinion that does not reflect who we are as a people, as a public and as a Jew."

In 2017, Lau published a position paper called "JOY", which is based on a proposal to reinterpreting "resident alien" (ger toshav) status for marriages of Jews with members of other religions, who do not convert but choose to adopt Jewish elements in their relationship. Lau explains the need his proposed changes in the context of maintaining Judaism: "A couple comes to me—the woman is Jewish and the man isn't. They want to get married but he doesn't want to convert. They want to be part of our community, to raise their children as Jews. If I tell them 'no,' we've lost them and their children, and that's it."

In 2016, he completed his rabbinical studies and a master's degree in education at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York.

Lau completed his undergraduate studies in 2010 in New York.

About a decade later, in 2009, Lau established an egalitarian and experimental Jewish community in New York under the name Lab/Shul—a combination of lab (lab) and synagogue (shul). The home page of the community website reads: "Lab/Shul accepts people of all races, religions, beliefs, gender expressions, sexual orientations, countries of origin, ages, abilities, families and shades—with an open heart."

In 1999, he founded Storahtelling, a ceremonial theater group that employs the ancient tradition of Torah reading alternating with a translation in the local language, and renews the traditional Torah reading ceremony as a social political theater. In 2009, Lau founded Lab/Shul, an egalitarian and experienced Jewish community laboratory in New York, which he still heads (as of 2021).

In 1999, he founded the theater group StorahTelling, an organization that took on the challenge of giving a new interpretation to Jewish identity through the Torah. The name connects the words "story," "Torah," and "Haggadah." The organization's mission is to take the stories of the Torah and show that they are relevant in the 21st century.

Between the years 1996–2005, Lau participated in reality shows produced by Rafik Yedidya, "Across Israel" (1996),; "Cosmic Optimism" (1999), which aired on Channel 2; and "The Eleventh Commandment" (2004) which aired on Channel 10.

Lau grew up in Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, New York and Jerusalem. He graduated from Hartman High School for Boys in Jerusalem in 1986. He continued his studies at the Har Etzion Yeshiva, and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in 1987 as part of the integration program of the Ein Tzurim Yeshiva, where he served paratrooper, as a combat medic, and as a medic instructor in the national squad.

Rabbi Amichai Yehuda Lau-Lavie (born April 22, 1969) is a social entrepreneur, human rights activist and LGBT, conservative rabbi, founder and spiritual leader of the Lab/Shul community in New York.