Farewell to Rabbi Aharon Shteinman
THE STRICTLY Orthodox world is in mourning for Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, a leader of the Lithuanian stream of strictly Orthodox Judaism who died late on Monday aged 104.
He was one of the last Charedi leaders born and raised in Eastern Europe, and began the rebuilding of the great yeshivas in Israel after the Holocaust.
While he dedicated his life to the study and teaching of Torah, he also wielded significant political power as the spiritual leader of Degel Ha’Torah, one of the main factions making up Israel’s United Torah Judaism party.
Tens of thousands crowded the streets of the Israeli coastal city of Bnei Berak to attend his funeral on Tuesday.
Born in 1913 in the town of Kamenitz, in modern-day Belarus, he studied in Poland’s famed Brisk Yeshiva.
In 1937, facing a possible draft to the Polish army, he moved to Switzerland to continue his studies and became a Rabbi and teacher. Most of his family in Kamenitz were murdered in the Holocaust.
After the war Rabbi Shteinman led a number of Yeshivas founded in Israel to replace those in Lithuania that had been either disbanded by the Soviet Union or destroyed by the Germans.
It was 1988 when Rabbi Shteinman, then aged in his mid-70s, first became involved in politics.
He became an influential and conciliatory figure, working to repair the split in the Charedi community, meeting regularly with the leaders of the Ger and Chabad Chassidic courts. He was also opposed to open conflict with Israel’s secular establishment.
Despite his devotion to Torah study, he granted approval to many Charedi who wanted to leave yeshiva and enlist in the IDF or study for a vocation.