Remembering Rabbi Zvi Kogan, z’l – Without More Killing

In the wake of the United Arab Emirates’ recent death sentence for three of the Uzbek nationals convicted in the murder of Israeli-Moldovan Rabbi Zvi Kogan, Z’L (zichrono livracha – of blessed memory), we – the 3800+ members of ”L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” – wish to honor that tsaddik(righteous human being) by advocating for an end to all killings. Like all abolitionist organiziations, we sanctify all life. We remember the spirits of all murder victims the world over by standing against unnecessary killings in all forms, whether by individuals or the state. For many years, we have offered prayers at each execution vigil that our partners at Death Penalty Action have held ahead of every state-sponsored killing of safely incarcerated human beings across the United States. There are no exceptions to this sacred task, whether the non-Jewish victim of our executed Jewish pen pal Jedidiah Murphy or the eleven Jewish martyrs of the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. We accompany these memorial blessings with prayers for those human beings who have murdered them and who are themselves in line for state killing in a warped display of condoned vengeance. Rabbi Kogan – an Isareli-Moldovan envoy of the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic organization Chabad residing in the UAE – merits the very same attention as we simultaneously demand that no more blood be spilled in his name.

Rabbi Zvi Kogan (צבי קוגן) was born on 11 August 1996 in Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem, to Alexander and Etel Kogan. A dual citizen of Israel and Moldova, he was raised with his older brother Reuven in his Litvak-Haredi family. As a teenager, Kogan studied at Yeshiva Maoz Chayil in Jerusalem, Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer in Bnei Brak, and finally at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Before he moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he served his mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces’ 84th “Givati” Infantry Brigade. Rabbi Kogan married his wife, U.S. citizen Rivky (née Spielman) in 2022. In a stark reminder of the omnipresence of lethal antisemitic violence in our world, it so happens that Rivky Kogan is the niece of Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, Z’L, a Chabad rabbi who was murdered with his wife by an Islamist militant group in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in India.

Rabbi Kogan served in the UAE as the rabbi and representative of the Abu Dhabi chapter of the prominent Orthodox Jewish Hasidic organization known as Chabad. He had been so since the UAE normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in the Abraham Accords in 2020. He was an assistant to Chief Rabbi of the UAE, Levi Duchman, who was his brother-in-law.  Rabbi Kogan also managed a kosher supermarket, Rimon, on Al Wasl Road in Dubai, where he was a resident. Chabad stated that Kogan “worked to expand Jewish life in the UAE” with Duchman through ways that included ensuring the availability of kosher food and opening the country’s first Jewish education center. Rabbi Kogan strove to explain Judaism and disprove myths and stereotypes about the religion. In 2021, Kogan led a Yizkor memorial prayer during the UAE’s first Holocaust remembrance day memorial.

As his dear friend Chaim Heber recalled, Rabbi Kogan was a veritable “ball of energy.” “Zvi had a way of connecting with people in 0.3 seconds,” added Heber, “instantly becoming your best friend and always staying in touch. He was the guy everyone wanted to be around.”

Rabbi Kogan went missing the afternoon of 21 November 2024, when he was last seen at Rimon, the kosher supermarket he managed in Dubai. His car and phone were found abandoned in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, 150 kilometres from Dubai and on the border of Oman, where his abductors were planning to drive him. There was blood and there were signs of a violent struggle found in his car. His body was discovered on 24 November. Rabbi Kogan was 28 years old.

It was later determined that Kogan had been followed by three Uzbekistani nationals: Olimpi Toirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, also 28, and Azizbek Kamlovich, 33. They had tracked Kogan’s movements, and then kidnapped him and transported him to Al Ain in his own car, where he they murdered him. The killers fled to Turkey and were extradited to the UAE. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in response to this barbaric event: “I mourn with sorrow and outrage the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan…This vile anti-Semitic attack is a reminder of the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people.” Herzog thanked UAE authorities for their swift action on the case, and expressed his confidence that they would bring the murderers to “justice.”

On March 31, 2025, the state-run WAM news agency announced that the three Uzbeki assailants had been sentenced to death after a trial in Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals’ State Security Chamber. A fourth person who aided the killing received a life sentence. 

The 3800+ members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” have outlined time and again the reasons why twentieth-century Judaism should reject the death penalty once and for all – without exception. This includes perpetrators of terrorist acts like Robert Bowers who murdered 11 synagogue-goers at a Shabbat service in the infamous October 27, 2018 Pittsburgh Tree of Life Shooting, and the members of Hamas who carried out the heinous October 7th, 2023 massacre and mass kidnapping of Jews from their homes. We bear the torch of Holocaust survivor and death penalty abolitionist Elie Wiesel, who stated: Death is not the answer.” By the end of his life, Professor Wiesel made no exception to this line, concluding that “with every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.” This applies as well for Olimpi Toirovich, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, and Azizbek Kamlovich.

These three men murdered Rabbi Zvi Kogan during the week of the year when Jews across the world were engaged in the reading of a section of the book of Genesis (23:1–25:18) entitled “Chayyei Sara”  – “the life of Sara.” In that parsha (Torah portion), we learn of how that matriarch’s widower Abraham mourned his beloved wife. In a life-affirming response, the first action to which Abraham turned his attention after completing Sarah’s burial was to search for a wife for their son Isaac in order to help perpetuate his wife’s legacy through the creation of more life. 

Rabbi Zvi Kogan’s beloved friend Chaim Heber shares the same life-affirming name as this aforementioned Torah portion, as well as that of our organization. Chaim echoes a similar sentiment to the parsha as he reflects on his loved one’s murder: 

“Just a few days after our move to the UAE, Zvi was murdered. He was ripped away from us in the most horrific way, going down like a hero as he fought off the terrorists. I can picture what he must have been thinking in those terrible moments—how he would somehow come back to us and say in his unique style, “Achi, that was crazy, I almost died!” Zvi changed my life in countless impactful ways, but the most notable was how I approach life. When life gets stressful, the best response is laughter and positivity. He never lost his cool—even when there was reason to. Zvi gave me the practical tools to navigate life’s roller coasters with laughter and resilience.”

May we honor the sacred memory of Rabbi Zvi Kogan by doing the same with a redoubling of our commitment to life and by ending the atrocious cycle of killing that took his. 

May his loved ones be comforted among all the mourners of Zion, Jerusalem and the world. 

May his abiding neshama (spirit) be a loving guide for us all. 

And may all the killings end…

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM

Board Certified Chaplain – Ohalah: Association of Rabbis and Cantors for Jewish Renewal

Co-Founder –  L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty

Advisory Committee Member –  Death Penalty Action