“MIRACLE RABBI.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 November 1929, Page 3

“MIRACLE RABBI.”

FORMER MUSEUM FREAK, I A bogus rabbi to whom for two ' weeks thousands of pilgrims, rich and poor, Jews and Christians, flocked to has just been exposed in Budapest. It n am burg. Last summer it was reported in Budapest newspapers that a ••miracle” ’ .corking rabbi had 1 arrived) in the city. Crowds who flocked to see him found) a man named Abraham Ovich, scarcely three feet in height, with a body scarcely able to support his bulky head. His long hair -and beard, reaching almost to bis waist-, made him look like a wise old man in -spite of his thirty years. His caution was so great tlra-t .to almost ' aills complaints he gave but one stereo typed) answer: ’•God wilt help you.” •So responsibility was shifted to the Dei tv. if someone ashed whether he

should emignatte, lie was asked! whether he had a livelihood. If the reply was affirmative, he wjas .advised to stay. Despite the unoriginality of Iris oau.nsel, however, Ovich was a.blie to ©aim great sums and pay two secretaries and fieverail servants. According to police re cordis, ,a few yearns ago he wa-s a frea-k at Banium's in Hamburg. Later somebody bought him to make a “miracle rabbi” of him. Ovich -soon established himself and started work on a Targe scale. He deceived! people with a few quotations from the Talmud, and he wiaia reputed to be almost 100 yeans old. After disappearing from Budapest, hci emerged in Vienna and Berlin. To cure -souls he distributed; Hebrew ■prayer books, and! to those with bodily complaints he gave pills. When lie returned to Budapest this season his fame had been almost uni vers l ally _ established 1 . Even anti-Semite politicians —sired the threshold of bis sma-5 house in one of Budapest’s suburbs. People waited Bonn? to b-e admitted; to bis con-

sulting room. Police attention was- also attracted to him. He becalm© mwipire of the- impending danger and vanishedl with hiiis whole retinue- from Budapest. He tol-dl the New Yo-rk “Times” carresiiondicnt lie was going on a; trim to Germany and the United Stn.tef,. but- omitted to Kay whether as a- miracle rabbi or a. freak. •