Tanya Ospovat is a preschool teacher at Newton’s Temple Emanuel. Her dad, Dr. Mark Steinsteg, was killed in a terror attack at the Ramot Junction in Jerusalem on Sept. 8, 2025.
Two weeks before his death, her father had finalized an agreement to commission a third Sefer Torah for his growing local synagogue, Hanichei HaYeshivot.
“He was a man of deeds. He was a perfect father,” she tells me.
Now, she’s trying to raise money in his honor to complete the project. In a Chesed Fund page, she writes:
I want to complete this Sefer Torah in his memory and in memory of the extraordinary chesed he did for his community. The funds will cover the completion of the scroll itself, the purchase of its necessary coverings, and the expenses for the dedication celebration, a beautiful event he himself hosted in 2019. Any excess funds will go toward the yeshivot and institutions that he supported during his lifetime.
My father, Mordechai ben Alexander, was a truly unique individual. Born in Minsk, Belarus, in the former Soviet Union, he studied medicine and graduated with a dual specialty in cardiology and rehabilitative medicine. Despite the prevailing antisemitism in the USSR, he worked tirelessly, rising to high-ranking positions in prestigious institutions. At the height of his career, he even hosted a TV program on leading a healthy lifestyle. While in Belarus, his interest in Judaism grew, and in 1990, he made the momentous decision to make aliyah, giving up a shining career and everything that came with it.
We moved to Jerusalem, where he initially worked at Hadassah Hospital. However, he disagreed with conventional medicine’s approach to treating illnesses and soon left to start his now-famous bakery. Convinced that preventing problems was as important as treating them, he pioneered a healthy bread bakery that still carries his name today. At 46, he worked long hours to develop his line of breads, even marketing samples to local grocery stores on his bicycle as a financially struggling immigrant. His perseverance paid off, and eventually, the bakery sold breads, rolls, crackers, and cookies to supermarkets all over Israel.
In 2011, having grown in his religious observance over the previous two decades, my father decided to dedicate himself to full-time Torah study. He sold his bakery and committed himself to learning three full sedarim a day—morning, afternoon, and night.
But the sale of his business did not lessen his most important enterprise: his extensive charity work. Because of his modesty, we are only now discovering the full extent of his quiet generosity. During the shiva, dozens of people shared how he had helped them during difficult times or given them large loans to help a child get married. His chesed wasn’t limited to financial matters. He constantly hosted young people who didn’t have family to go to for Shabbat and holiday meals and gave free medical consultations to those seeking a healthier lifestyle.
One of his greatest passions was learning Torah and supporting those who devoted themselves to it. To that end, he single-handedly commissioned a Sefer Torah that was donated to a synagogue in Betar 20 years ago. In 2019, he donated another commissioned Torah to the synagogue in Ramot that he attended. I was lucky enough to be part of that Hachnasat Sefer Torah celebration six years ago, where the entire community celebrated their new Torah.
“He lived a very humble life,” Ospovat tells me, through tears.
“Judaism and Torah was his life. I remember visiting him, and I suggested getting coffee. He told me, ‘No, I can’t. I have a class. And now I understand: It was something that he lived.”
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