last word
Rue Landau
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
R ue Landau’s father Mike Landau
grew up at Har Zion Temple
back when the Conservative
synagogue was in Philadelphia’s
Wynnefield neighborhood. And her
mother Dotsy Landau came of age at a
Reform temple, Congregation Rodeph
Shalom on North Broad Street.

But even though they hailed from
different denominations, the Landaus
preached the same Jewish value to their
daughter: tikkun olam.

“When I was growing up, my parents
taught me that we all have a role to play
in healing the world,” she recalled.

Since reaching adulthood three
decades ago, Rue Landau has tried
to do her part. She’s been a housing
organizer, an attorney for Community
Legal Services and the director
of Philadelphia’s Commission on
Human Relations and Fair Housing
Commission. And now she wants to try to do her
part by serving on the Philadelphia City
Council. The 53-year-old announced
her campaign for one of the seven
at-large seats on the body on Dec. 13
before friends and family members at
the John C. Anderson Apartments in
Center City. At-large council members
represent the entire city.

Landau, a Democrat, is one of more
than a dozen candidates in the race for
those seven seats, including five incum-
bent reps in Isaiah Thomas, Katherine
Gilmore Richardson, Kendra Brooks
and Jim Harrity. If elected, she would
become the first openly LGBTQ+ mem-
ber of council in Philadelphia history.

John C. Anderson, whom the apartment
complex is named after, was a gay but
not out councilman from 1979 to 1983
before dying of AIDS complications.

“Throughout my career, I’ve done
work in basically every neighborhood
in this city,” Landau said. “Between
those connections and my love for
every neighborhood, that makes me a
good candidate for at-large.”
28 Landau’s parents moved out of the
city to raise her in Cheltenham. But
after she graduated from the University
of Delaware, she moved back into
Philadelphia at an apartment at 10th
and Clinton streets. She had just come
out as a lesbian and felt like there was
a “more vibrant community in the city
than there was in the suburbs,” she
said. Landau received acceptance from
her parents and found a gay commu-
nity through bars, coffee shops and
bookstores. She also started her activist work
by assisting Kensington residents in
finding affordable housing and by
helping to provide social services to
DECEMBER 22, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
victims of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In 1998, Landau earned a law degree
from Temple University and started
a decade-long tenure at Community
Legal Services, where she represented
low-income tenants fighting evictions.

Starting in 2008 and continu-
ing into 2021, she served as director
of the Philadelphia Commission on
Human Relations and the Fair Housing
Commission, where she worked
with city council to, as a campaign
email put it, “overhaul the city’s Fair
Practices Ordinance and Fair Housing
Ordinance.” Landau’s efforts helped
returning citizens get a fair shot in job
application processes, provided better
housing accommodations for pregnant
and breastfeeding women and added
eviction safeguards.

But she left those commissions to
teach housing law at Temple and to
become the director of law and policy
at the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Over the past couple of years, though,
she has watched her beloved city fall
into a cycle of violence. And now she
wants to help.

“I want to use my skills to help
Philadelphia turn around and become
the city we know we are and can be,”
Landau said.

Landau and her wife, legal aid law-
yer Kerry Smith, are raising their son
in South Philadelphia. They attend
Reconstructionist synagogue Kol
Tzedek in West Philadelphia even
though Smith is not Jewish.

The candidate wants other families
to see Philadelphia as a place where
you can get married, raise a kid and go
to synagogue. To her, this means sup-
porting low-income renters, full school
funding, increased funding for librar-
ies and recreation centers, more street
lights and an overall investment plan
that includes businesses.

“All of those things have been proven
to immediately reduce violence in
neighborhoods,” she said.

Smith met Landau 20 years ago when
she was helping a friend sub-lease a
New York City apartment to Landau’s
friend. As Smith remembered it, her
future wife walked in the door and had
infectious energy. So they started dat-
ing, even though Smith lived in Boston
and Landau in Philadelphia. But as
their relationship developed, it became
clear to the Bostonian that she was
going to have to move to Philadelphia.

Landau would take her around the city,
talk about everything they saw and run
into people she knew.

“It’s the way she talks about Philly
and looks at Philly. She’s like a tour
guide,” Smith said. “Here’s our people
and who we are.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Photos by Wei Chen
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