Dear World ORT Community,
It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Mauricio Merikanskas, past President of World ORT, passed away yesterday, July 28, 2026. His devotion to our mission spanned more than half a century.
Mauricio gave his life to ORT in nearly every capacity the organization could offer: President of ORT Mexico, Chair of the World ORT Board of Directors, Chair of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and finally, President of World ORT. An engineer by training and an educator at heart, he believed with absolute conviction that education is the surest gift one generation can give the next, and he was instrumental in bringing STEM education philosophy into ORT’s global mission to build excellent Jewish schools.
In Israel, that devotion took shape in ORT Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel. Mauricio was a generous donor and one of the driving forces behind its founding, opening a route into engineering and technology for students across the Galilee.
The son of a family from the Lithuanian shtetl of Merkine, Mauricio understood deeply what had been lost, and what ORT helped rebuild. When he led a mission to the ORT schools of Riga and Vilnius in 2010, he stood in communities restored after decades of darkness and said: “These people have suffered so much and now they are free and flourishing. What ORT is doing in the Baltic States is tremendous; long may we continue.”
In Mexico, the country he loved and served, his legacy is written into the institutions he built. He signed the affiliation of Colegio Israelita de México with World ORT himself in 2009, and it grew into the flagship CIM-ORT school. In 2022, it merged with Colegio Hebreo Sefaradí to become Colegio Olamí ORT, today educating more than 1,000 students and held up as a model across the global ORT network, a fitting tribute to the foundations Mauricio helped lay.
Mauricio is predeceased by his wife, Helen and survived by his two sons, including his son Arturo, who now carries his father’s legacy forward as Chair of the Council of Representatives.
“The Merikanskas family is a blessing to the worldwide Jewish community,” said World ORT CEO Dov Ben-Shimon. “They have done so much for our people. I am grateful to have met and spent time with Mauricio. He will be deeply missed.”
The funeral will be held today, July 29, at 4:00 PM (Mexico City time), in Mexico.
As Mishlei teaches us, the memory of the righteous is a blessing.
זכר צדיק לברכה
Connecting across borders. Learning without boundaries. That’s the Power of World ORT.
To make a donation to World ORT in Mauricio’s memory please visit our donation page and complete the tribute gift section.
An earlier note referred to Mauricio’s wife, Helen, as surviving him. We want to correct this: Helen predeceased him, and our thoughts are with the full Merikanskas family during this time. We apologize for this error.