Reb Shayele of Kerestir zy"a

Biography

Reb Yeshayah Steiner zy"a was born in 1851 (a few seforim and references say 1852) to Reb Moshe and Hentsha Miriam Steiner in Zborov near Bardejov, then in Hungary and today in Slovakia. When he was three years old his father was niftar. At twelve his mother sent him to Reb Tzvi Hirsh of Liska zy"a. Later he was the Lisker Rebbe's gabbai. These facts were already on the earlier Global Kvittel site.

After Reb Tzvi Hirsh zy"a was niftar and his son-in-law took over the hoif, Reb Shayele zy"a traveled to the Divrei Chaim of Sanz zy"a. After the Divrei Chaim's histalkus he became a talmid of Reb Mordechai of Nadvorna zy"a, who told him to settle in Kerestir. There he became a Rebbe, known as a poel yeshuos and for tremendous hachnosas orchim. He was niftar on 3 Iyar 5685 (27 April 1925). It is reported that more than ten thousand people came to the levayah. His son, Reb Avrohom Steiner zy"a, was his memaleh makom.

His former house in Kerestir is today a memorial house, and the ohel in the Beis Hachaim is one of the most visited mekomos in Hungary.

Historical background

Reb Shayele zy"a lived in the last doros of the alte ungarishe Yiddishkeit, after 1867, through the First World War, and into the 1920s. Kerestir was a small town in the Tokay gegnt. He was niftar in 1925, before the churban of Hungarian Jewry. The Kerestir dynasty was later reconstituted in America, and the house and ohel in Kerestir were built up again as a makom toward the end of the last century.

Before & after