Rav Chaim Mordechai Katz (1894-1964) was born in 1894 in Shadova, Lithunania. As a young man he studied in the Shadova Yeshiva under the tutelage of Rav Yosef Leib Bloch and the Knesses Beis Yitzchak Yeshiva in Slobodka. He returned to study under Rav Bloch when he was appointed Rosh Yeshiva in Telz and later married Rav Bloch’s daughter Leah. He was ordained by Rav Refael Shapiro, the son-in-law of the “Netziv,” Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, at the Volozhin Yeshiva. Rav Katz became one of the founders of the Zeirei Agudath Israel in Lithuania and also served as one of the editors of the local Agudah newspaper, “Dos Yiddishe Lebben.” In 1940 he fled Soviet-occupied Lithuania and immigrated to the United States where he and his brother-in-law, Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch, reestablished the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio, where they later founded the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland as well as a Hebrew School for Girls. In addition to running the Telz Cleveland Yeshiva, Rav Katz was a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the Agudath Israel.