The Mandel community mourns the passing of Avi Katzman, a faculty member of the Mandel Foundation for over 30 years. Avi studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he began his journalistic career at Pi Ha’aton, the university’s student newspaper, and later taught journalistic editing. In the 1980s, he edited and wrote for the weekly newspaper Koteret Rashit. He also authored Haaretz’s weekly quiz for 14 years and played a key role in editing and shaping David Grossman’s influential work, The Yellow Wind. Alongside this work, Avi edited and translated numerous books.
At Mandel, Avi served for many years as a faculty member, first in the Jerusalem Fellows program and later at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership. He was a member of various Foundation committees, including the publications committee, and taught courses on Jewish and Israeli culture in Mandel leadership programs. He also mentored fellows in the Foundation’s programs, maintaining ties with some of them over the years.
Avi was the author of A First Look at Zionism (1980) and The Mandel Foundation and the Ripples of Change (2019), a book that examined the impact of the Mandel Foundation through the personal stories of several Mandel figures who dedicated their lives to education. He also translated Morton Mandel’s It’s All About Who into Hebrew. He served as editor of Tzvia Greenfield’s They Are Afraid: How the Religious and Haredi Right Became a Leading Force in Israel (2001); Yechiam Weitz’s The Man Who Was Murdered Twice: The Life, Trial and Death of Dr. Israel Kastner (1995); and Controversies: 60 Momentous Debates in the Hebrew Press from 1918 to 2008, a collection of Hebrew press excerpts that surveys Israeli history from before the establishment of the State through the disengagement from Gaza.
At Avi's funeral, Dr. Yehuda Ben-Dor, a faculty member at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, eulogized him as follows: “Avi was a Renaissance man, animated by interest and curiosity in many fields, above all in the humanities: art, music and especially the art of the word. Language and words stood at the center of his world, and his work also dealt with words and even with letters. Avi loved language and saw precision in language as a human value. That was how he spoke, always formulating his thoughts with care, as if to say that disregard for expression is disregard for our humanity.”
Avi will be remembered for his extraordinary breadth of knowledge, intellectual curiosity, and deep commitment to education, Jewish thought and Israeli culture. His love of language, ideas and learning made a lasting impression on many Mandel fellows and faculty members. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family.
