Miriam Mintz, 30, Beloved Educator and Just-Appointed Chabad Emissary
by Menachem Posner – chabad.org
If you had spoken to Miriam Mintz earlier this month, you would have learned about the many projects she was working on.
An experienced and well-loved educator, she was technically off for summer break. But that didn’t mean she was on vacation. As a consummate educator, she was constantly upping her game and helping her peers do the same. And like every summer, she was training her fellow teachers on the custom curriculum she’d developed.
Concurrently, together with her husband—Chabad activist Rabbi Mendel Mintz—she was preparing to relocate to Baltimore’s southern suburbs, where they were starting a Chabad Center to serve Pasadena and Glen Burnie.
At the same time, they were actively coordinating a worldwide project called Mikdash Minute, providing brief videos from prominent rabbis and social leaders teaching about the Holy Temple, which the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—encouraged to be done at this time of year.
And in case that was not enough, she was also in the process of undergoing a procedure that would allow the couple to build their family.
And then a complication arose from the anesthesia and, days later, she left behind her husband, family, students, and one community that had known and loved her her entire life and another she was just getting to know.
Miriam was the third of five children born to Gershon and Elisheva Fink in Baltimore. Educated in the local Bais Yaakov school system, she went on to further her Jewish education in Me’ohr Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary in Jerusalem.
Spiritually in tune, she loved to pray, and found fulfillment and joy in performing mitzvahs with intention. She treasured halachah and continually studied the intricacies of Jewish observance.
Upon her return to Baltimore and graduation from Goucher College with a master’s degree in special education, she began working with students at the venerable Talmudical Academy. With patience, care and creativity, she soon became a beloved special educator for elementary-aged boys.
She developed a customized Chumash curriculum that she taught to her fellow special educators as well each summer.
She held dear the many thank you notes she received over the years, each one a testament to one of the many lives she changed.
And it was not just the kids. Many colleagues, friends and others would regularly consult with her and receive her wise and level-headed guidance.
Beloved by all, Miriam impacted countless people with her dedication and devotion.
Courtesy of the Mintz Family
From Newlywed to Emissary
In 2022, she was introduced to Rabbi Mendel Mintz, scion of a well-established Chabad family, who had already made a name for himself as a community activist. Following their wedding in June of that year, the couple settled in Baltimore, where Miriam continued her teaching and Rabbi Mendel worked on his various projects.
Through nightly study sessions of Chassidic texts with her husband , she was drawn into the inspiring world of Chabad.
It didn’t take long before she joined him in his work, providing her unique perspective and touch to everything he did. With her guidance, the couple began organizing new events and programs for the broader Jewish community.
A most recent example was Nafshi, a star-studded musical celebration of 19 Kislev, “the Chassidic New Year.”
To bring Jewish awareness and joy to those whom others had forgotten, before every holiday, she and her husband visited the residents of old-age homes with mitzvah supplies and a kind word for all.
And together, they resolved to become Chabad emissaries.
A little more than a month ago, on the 30th anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing, they finalized the plans for their new Chabad center with Rabbi Nochum Light, director of Chabad of Anne Arundel County, and Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, director of Chabad of Maryland.
With her signature zest, Miriam was looking forward to their first event: a meet-and-greet, where they’d get to know their new community.
The day after they visited the Ohel in Queens, N.Y.—the resting place of the Rebbe—to bring a copy of their contract, Miriam went to Penn Medicine in Philadelphia for egg retrieval, normally a routine outpatient procedure. Unexpected complications arose from the anesthesia, and on Thursday, 4 Av, 5784, she returned her soul to her Maker.
In addition to her parents and husband, she is survived by grandparents, Mechel and Chana Steinmetz; siblings Naftali Fink, Rabbi Chaim Asher Fink, Devorah Ungar and Racheli Fink; her in-laws, Rabbi Efraim and Shaina Basha Mintz; nieces and nephews; and hundreds of adoring and grateful students, who will forever remember her kindness and dedication.
