"How I Love Your Torah, It Is My Conversation All Day Long"  

--Tehillim 119: 97

This web page commemorates and perpetuates the life and teaching of Maidi Katz z"l

In her tragically brief and extraordinarily rich life, Maidi Katz touched and changed the lives of literally thousands of people, men and women, young and old, and helped transform the spiritual complexion of religious Judaism. Her deep learning and wide knowledge of Gemara, Rishonim and Poskim, exacting but never pedantic, steeped in tradition and profoundly engaged with the life of her times, and always laced with wit, marked an unprecedented advance in Torah study by women. In her many shiurim and classes at Midreshet Lindenbaum ("Brovender's") and Pelech, at Ramaz, Pardes and above all at the Drisha Institute, and in countless correspondences and conversations, she imparted exactitude and passion and offered all who came into contact with her a glimpse of a thrilling and ennobling future for Torah Judaism and the women and men who bring it to life.

Maidi was not an agitator for change but an exemplar of change. Her approach to learning enacted the synthesis of intellectual audacity, moral concern and reverential care that is the hallmark of Rabbinic Judaism past and present. In the months leading up to her death in November 1996 at age 34 she was subjected to cruel trials of pain and anguish. And yet in her very last hours she was engaged in Torah discussions with the spirit and rigor which had always characterized her.

Maidi was a true Talmidah Chachamah, and a warm friend.

May her memory be a blessing and an inspiration.

A fund has been established at the Drisha Institute in New York to stage an annual mini-lecture series in Maidi's memory. Please send your donation to:

The Drisha Institute,
131 West 86th Street,
New York, New York 10024-3412
USA

Please state in your cover letter that the money is for Maidi's fund.

Copyright 2001 Union for Traditional Judaism