The livelihood of the Jews of Săliște was meager, and most of the Jews lived in poverty, as in the rest of the others from Maramureș. Apparently the first Jew in Săliște was named Marcus Josif, none other than Reb Mordechai (from the legend of the Three) the son of Reb Yosef Stern, the nephew of the Tzadik Rabbi Shmuel Shmelke Horowitz of Nikolsburg. Reb. Mordechai did well in Săliște. His home was open wide to any passer-by, and even gentiles were welcomed in his house. He invited rabbis and renowned Tzadikim from Galicia to his home like the well-known Tzadik Rabbi Baruch of Kosow who would remain in his home for several months, and many of the Jews of Maramures would flock to him to listen to his discussions and words of Torah, and be blessed by him. He would serve as the prayer leader on the High Holy Days, and Jews of Maramures from the nearby and farther away villages would come to hear his Hasidic style prayers and supplications.