The Miracle Rabbi The far-famed miracle rabbi of the Hasidic Jewish community was Reb Shaya Steiner (1851–1925). The Reb Shaya Steiner Memorial House, established in the rabbi’s former residence, has become a popular pilgrimage site, as has his grave in the Jewish cemetery founded in the 18th century on the side of Dereszla Hill, over which his followers built an ohel (a tent-like tomb). People came from far and wide, including Christians, to seek advice from the rabbi, in whose kitchen meals were once prepared for fifty people daily so that no one would leave hungry. His miraculous deeds are preserved in legends, just as the armchair from which Reb Shaya almost never rose has become legendary. It is said he only went to bed on Friday nights; at all other times, he was available to his followers and guests, or he was praying. In the place of honor within the enclosed Jewish cemetery, the graves of several other famous former rabbis can also be found.
