I just wanted to add two personal thoughts/stories about Maidi, maybe not as eloquent or not as complete, although no words will ever be complete. But two important memories that I have of Maidi that probably a lot of other people have similar memories and there are people here who are part of one of them.

The first is the first time I met Maidi. I was 16, Maidi was 20. I was going into my senior year of High School, she was going into her last year of college at Barnard. And we spent the summer together at Drisha learning gemarrah. I say together because we sat in the same room and we learned the same words, but she understood it and I didn't. I was a kid who thought I was very smart, and thought I could do a lot, but I didn't know very much. And Maidi sat there and she read it, understood it, analyzed it, she got it. She knew what was happening. I was fortunate enough to go to schools where I learned Gemarrah from a very young age. But all of my teachers were men, and although I loved learning gemarrah and I went to Drisha that summer because I wanted to learn more gemarrah, I don't think I ever really thought that I could learn very much, that I could get very far. I knew that I wouldn't have the opportunity to go to yeshiva like the guys in my class. And that although I would learn at Brovenders, or Bruria as it was then; it wasn't really like going to Yeshiva; and that I figured that I couldn't get very far. And then I sat in Drisha that summer and I met Maidi, and she blew me away. And I said: there are women out there, there's a woman out there; there's somebody doing it. And who knows, maybe I could get somewhere. And I've worked on it since then . Maidi and I struggled together to get further in our learning. Maidi was not just 4 years ahead of me, she was light years ahead of me. She was always an inspiration. And she continues to be an inspiration. That's memory number one.

The second is eight years ago when I first came to Israel. Maidi and I were supposed to be roommates, except that Maidi decided a week before I came to Israel that she was going to go back to the States for 6 months. So I very quickly had to scramble and find another roommate, but for 2 weeks we were roommates, on Rehov HaRav Berlin. And I didn't know anybody. Its sort of funny for me to think about that now, 8 years later when I feel so at home here, but I didn't know anybody. My brother lived here, but he lived pretty far away. And socially I didn't have any friends. And Maidi took me by the hand and knocked on many of your doors and introduced me to you. And I don't know if you all remember that day, but I do because I was completely embarrassed. I couldn't believe that she was doing this to me. And I let her do it because I had nothing better to do that day. But the truth is that she knew that this was a good thing for me. And what happened was, that first shabbat , when I walked to Shul , or when I went anywhere, you all said hello to me. And otherwise I wouldn't have known anybody. And you all were the beginning of my friends in Israel and even two weeks later when Maidi left, she left me with a base, with a start. And I'm still here and I had that to hold on to.