"They say that whoever comes here will have a blessed life," said Tobi Ash, 57, who spoke to AFP in Bodrogkeresztur, a village of 800 souls nestled in the heart of the Tokay vineyards.

This great-great-granddaughter of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner, who died in April 1925 after dedicating her life to the poor, paid tribute to him for three days.

Like Tobi Ash, pilgrims came from all over the diaspora, by charter flights, buses or even helicopters for VIPs.

Hasidic Jewish pilgrims pray with the Torah at the former home of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner, on April 24, 2023 in Bodrogkeresztur, Hungary © ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP

"People feel that my grandfather listens to them and they reconnect with their roots" by asking him to give them health or marry off their children, says his cousin Menachem Mendel Rubin, 38, who regularly travels from New York.

Helping Jews and non-Jews

Bodrogkeresztur, located 220 kilometers northeast of Budapest, was once home to a large Ashkenazi community. But 750 of them were deported to Nazi death camps during World War II and almost none returned.

Born in the commune, Israel Grosz survived the Holocaust before emigrating to the United States. The 92-year-old man with a white beard and big smile is Rabbi Steiner's oldest living relative.

Hasidic Jewish pilgrims on a street in the village of Bodrogkeresztur, on April 23, 2023 in Hungary © ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP

"People call me every day to find out if I inherited my grandfather's powers," he laughs.

The communist parenthesis closed after 1989, the family bought the ancestral house and began to welcome believers. "Now we are rebuilding the synagogue," Menachem Mendel Rubin proudly said, wearing a long gabardine and rolled papillotes on his temples.

Women, fewer in number, and men are strictly separated. A scroll of parchment from the Torah, the sacred text, is never far away, ready to be read in Hebrew by the faithful. Under the large white tent, unleavened bread cakes, kosher meat sauce dishes and "rugelach", chocolate croissants, are baked.

Rabbi Steiner helped Jews and non-Jews alike, and villager Laszlo Bozso, 87, remembers his grandmother coming to him for advice on family planning.

Israel Grosz, the oldest living relative of Rabbi Steiner, during an interview in Bodrogkeresztur, on April 24, 2023 in Hungary © ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP

"That's why I'm here, it's a bit of a miracle," he said, sitting on a bench watching the crowd of newcomers.

Economic benefits

In the Jewish cemetery, located on the hill overlooking the village, Sean Casper, a 55-year-old Londoner, "prayed for everyone" who reported on Facebook.

On the stone mausoleum, thousands of letters are piled up bearing the names of pilgrims and their relatives who could not move.

A Hasidic Jewish pilgrim prays near the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner on April 23, 2023 in Bodrogkeresztur, Hungary © ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP

According to the organizers, about 50,000 participants were counted this year, while they were only a few thousand at the beginning of the adventure. A number likely to double, or even triple, on the occasion of the centenary of the death of the rabbi in 2025.

For some residents, it is a "culture shock", comments Mayor Istvan Rozgonyi, especially since this time, the police preferred to cordon off the premises in order to avoid traffic jams caused by chartered buses.

A sign of the effervescence: houses quickly find takers and many are economically benefiting from the economic benefits.

Bodrogkeresztur Mayor Istvan Rozgonyi during an interview, April 24, 20223 in Hungary © ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP

This is the case of Tamas Kurucz, 34, who sells magnets bearing the rabbi's image. "I like this festive atmosphere," he says between two customers looking for a souvenir to put on the fridge door.

© 2023 AFP