Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deren, Director of Development for Chabad’s Mayanot Yeshivah in Jerusalem, passed away Friday, November 5, 2010. He was 36.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where his parents Rabbi Yisrael and Vivi Deren, currently directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Western and Southern New England in Stamford, CT, then served as Chabad emissaries to the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Rabbi Deren represented the third generation of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries. His maternal grandparents Rabbi Zalman and Risya Posner, were sent by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, as his emissaries to Nashville, Tennessee in 1949. Mendy grew up in a home imbued with Chabad spirit of unconditional love for his fellow Jew.

After completing his study in Yeshivah, Mendy dedicated himself to helping students of Mayanot, a yeshiva geared to college students and young professionals. After his marriage to his wife Sarah, Mendy returned to Mayanot to serve as its director of development.

In 2006, Mendy was introduced to Gift of Life's founder, Jay Feinberg, by Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz. Moved by the opportunity to save lives (pikuach nefesh) by registering Mayanot participants via Taglit Birthright Israel, Mendy enrolled several thousand donors, helping to save the lives of cancer patients needing bone marrow transplants for decades to come. Mendy's brother, Rabbi Asher Deren, director of Chabad of the West Coast in South Africa, recalls Mendy as someone, “small in stature but a giant of spirit and vision.”

Rabbi Mendy Deren is survived by his wife Sarah, his parents and siblings. This Donor Circle will pay tribute to Mendy's life and honor his memory for years to come.