The Rebbe's Poet: The Life of Rabbi Tzvi Meir Steinmetz Hardcover – December 25, 2025

This book provides a glimpse into the fascinating life of Rabbi Tzvi Meir Steinmetz, a poet, community leader, and the patriarch of a large Jewish family. Photo inserts depict important family moments and highlight Tzvi Meir’s community involvement and spiritual journey.Born on March 15, 1915, in Budapest, Hungary, Tzvi Meir was the only son in a family of eight children in a village in the Carpathian Mountains of Czechoslovakia. His father, Shlomo Dov, a prosperous lumber merchant, ensured the young protégé received the best possible education. Under the guidance of his private tutor, Tzvi Meir was immersed from an early age in the study of the Talmud, the Tanach, the Hebrew language, and Jewish philosophy.This biography outlines key aspects of his early life, his courtship of the beautiful Devora, and the authorship of his first volumes of Hebrew poetry. These tranquil early years were followed by the desperate struggle for survival in Nazi occupied Hungary, and the battle to save his wife and three daughters, along with members of his extended family, from deportation.Arriving in the United States, Rabbi Steinmetz and Devora navigated the challenges of new immigrants. Both labored hard, often at low-level jobs. Tzvi Meir had great satisfaction from his role as a Yeshiva teacher, but turned to real estate for his source of livelihood.The demands of daily life were always secondary to Tzvi Meir’s spiritual journey. A literary critic in Israel wrote that his poems “were imbued with faith and yearning for the Divine.” In his midyears, he became an ardent Chassid of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His later poetry was enriched by the philosophy of Chabad and the figure of the Jewish leader, the Moses of his generation. Read more