THE MEMORIAL BOOK OF PÁPA JEWRY - JewishGen

Polish nobility, who would forbid the president of the Pápa community, breathing the very spirit
of the Hungarian War of Independence, to wear Hungarian attire?)
His wife, the admired Rezl Lőwenstein, was a model for pious Jewish women (her
grandmother Rochl Tevel founded the first Association of Jewish Women) practising the mitzvah
of matan beseter: when a needy customer visited her flour shop she put the money back into the
flour bag of the poor man.
In his last will, Adolf Lőwenstein donated a fund for feeding 10 Catholic, 10 Protestant
and 10 Jewish destitutes on his Yahrzeit, on condition that after the meal the Jews would read out
the whole Birkat hamazon from the book.
At his funeral, there were six hajdús [bailiffs – the translator] with drawn swords,
accompanying his coffin.
He brought up his children in a cultured, strictly religious spirit. His son Jakab fulfilled
the post of gabbai at the community for decades. One of his daughters married Dezső Korein, a
committee member and a writer, the founder and the president of the National Shomrei Shabbat
Association.
His daughter Janka married Vilmos Steiner, the descendent of a famous family in
Gyömöre, who was the community president at Pápa for 20 years. His son-in-law Emil Gestettner
headed the Pápa yeshiva.
His third daughter married Zsigmond Steiner, a highly respected wholesaler and she
presided over the Hachnasat Kalah Association until her death. Head of the strictly religious
family, Zsigmond Steiner, saved one-tenth of his income for charity. His surviving descendants
still respectfully preserve his box for the maaser.
His memory is cherished in love and respect by his grandchildren: Sándor Lőwenstein
(published several memoirs about life in Pápa), his sister Sári, Irma Steiner, the spouse of David
Breuer, and László Korein, all of them living in Israel, and Emil Korein, living in South America.
And we, the Jews of Pápa, remember our famous rashekol with reverence and blessing.
LÁZÁR BREUER,
befitting the rank of Pápa community presidents, served as such for 10 years.
For him it was not a post, the means of showing off; on the contrary, it meant an
opportunity for him to notice concealed poverty and modest distress in the community, which he
was appointed to lead by a consensus of general respect and unanimous love. He was a Jew in the
Biblical sense; his pious religiousity was most profound. His father was the president of the Shiur
Association for decades. He gave more than the compulsory maaser of his assets. Charity was the
focal point of his life. His goodness was supported by a worthy helper in everything; his spouse,
who was the younger sister of Dr. Samu Lasz, a Kolozsvár High School principal.
A great blow, the tragic loss of their only daughter together with their young grandchild,
broke the parents' hearts and at the same time raised them to the height of human greatness. They
saved other people from suffering, this was their only solace.
Everyone who knew him loved him.
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