Beloved former St. Paul teacher killed in attack in Israel

Members of a St. Paul school community are mourning the loss of a former teacher who was killed in the Hamas attack on Israel earlier this month.

Noi Maudi, 29, taught at the Talmud Torah school in St. Paul. He lived in Minnesota for six years before returning to Israel, where he grew up. There, he died in the attack on Oct. 7, family friend and co-worker Rabbi Yosi Gordon said.

He was one of more than 4,000 killed in the past 10 days in what has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.

Hamas militants descended upon a large music festival in their initial attack in Israel. A family friend told the Star Tribune that Maudi was at a smaller gathering nearby.

In St. Paul, the whole school fell in love with Maudi, who was wise and gentle, Gordon said.

"He was always asking himself what's the next kind thing I can do for somebody, and then he'd actually do it," Gordon said. "How somebody so good could be murdered so ruthlessly, there is no human explanation."

Maudi, his brother-in-law and a teenage nephew were killed in the attack, according to the family friend. Another brother-in-law was injured.

Maudi was a beloved teacher who taught Hebrew and extracurricular subjects such as technology and gym to kids elementary aged through high school. He was the first person her two children asked about as she started to tell them about what was going on in Israel, said former school board member and St. Paul City Council Member Rebecca Noecker.

"He was their favorite teacher," Noecker said. "He was just delightful. He had a great sense of humor. He was able to connect with them on a level that went beyond the traditional classroom activities."

Students would rush to Maudi, seeing him as a big brother, counselor and adviser, Yossi said.

He taught Noecker's boys video-game tricks and always recommended funny YouTube videos, Noecker said. After she learned of Maudi's death on Friday, telling her children was extremely difficult, she said.

"I've tried to explain to them that these are some of the most horrible things in the world and I wish that the world wasn't like this," Noecker said. "There's these cycles of violence that just repeat themselves and don't make anything better and lead to more hatred and more violence."

Maudi moved to Minnesota to be with a woman he met when she visited Israel as a teen. After high school, he moved to St. Paul and started at Talmud Torah as a volunteer. Once he married and received his green card, he was hired to everyone's excitement, Gordon said.

The school was devastated when Maudi returned to Yated, a small town in Israel, to be closer to his family following the couple's separation, Gordon said. Maudi had barely begun living before being murdered for being a Jew, Gordon said.

"We so care about our brothers and sisters in Israel, and honestly, we so care about the innocent people in Gaza, whose worst enemy is their own government," Gordon said.

Maudi was buried in Israel, according to his obituary.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.