Energy for Everyone

While the Kogan tragedy set off an international nightmare with potential ramifications for nations and individual Jews near and far from the Middle East, the personal calamity began last Thursday, when Zvi’s wife, Rivky, was informed that her husband failed to arrive for meetings scheduled to take place that day.

Israeli-born Kogan, who had entered the UAE on his Moldovan passport (his parents were from Moldova back in the days when it was part of the Soviet Union), had been working in Abu Dhabi since 2020, when the Abraham Accords made it possible to build up visible Jewish infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates. He worked as a mashgiach and manager in the city’s kosher supermarket, Rimon, and assisted Chabad’s expanding efforts in the UAE under Rabbi Levi Duchman, chief rabbi of the UAE. Kogan was joined by his New York–born wife, Rivky Spielman, after their marriage in 2022.

Until last Tuesday, both Kogan and Rabbi Duchman were in Israel, where they met with Yossi Shelley, Israel’s next ambassador to the UAE.

Zvi Kogan was born in 1996 to Alexander and Etel Kogan of Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood. He grew up in a chareidi (though not chassidic) family, attending various litvish yeshivos until joining the IDF. But after his older brother Reuven grew close to Chabad and went on shlichus to Dubai, Zvi followed in his footsteps. In 2020, after his army service (where he kept up his strong chareidi character), Zvi joined Reuven and the team of rabbis at Chabad of the UAE. Zvi was involved in getting the Jewish center in Abu Dhabi off the ground, and was also instrumental in the building of Dubai’s first-ever mikveh in 2021.

In early 2022, Zvi met Rivky Spielman, a native of Crown Heights, and the two got married soon after. Rivky is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad shluchim murdered together with four of their guests at the Chabad House in Mumbai at the end of 2008. (At his wedding, Zvi wore his uncle Gavriel’s suit. When a friend told him that a chassan should wear a new suit, he answered, prophetically, in retrospect, “If we die, then we’ll die al kiddush Hashem.”)

After their wedding in 2022, the Kogans moved permanently to the Emirates. Rivky taught in the local Jewish school and Zvi managed logistics at the Chabad center in the capital city of Abu Dhabi. Kogan also managed and operated the Rimon kosher supermarket in Dubai, about an hour’s drive from Abu Dhabi, as well as serving as an aide to Rabbi Duchman.

“I’ve known Zvi for the past ten years,” says Menny Schwartz, COO at Radio Kol Chai. “He wasn’t a person who wanted to stand out in any way, but he had an unusual sensitivity for others. He was the person who would make sure that others had a Shabbos meal or a place to sleep. He used that goodness of heart and boundless energy in his work in Dubai, where he headed to join his older brother Reuven — a brother-in-law of Rabbi Duchman. Zvi and Rivky Kogan were responsible for a lot of the behind the scenes work of the nascent community, including running the Sunday school and cheder for the Jewish children, managing the supermarket, and being a resource and open home for many of the travelers who came through the country.”

In the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 2024, Kogan was abducted in Dubai by terrorists and driven toward Oman. Kogan’s car — which the terrorists stole when they abducted him — was abandoned in Al Ain, a city more than an hour from Dubai, bordering the Gulf country of Oman.

When Zvi could not be located, Rivky Kogan alerted a security officer employed by the Jewish community, who in turn communicated concerns to Emirati authorities. Shortly after initiating its search, UAE officials reached out to Israeli intelligence, working together to expedite the search efforts. From early in the investigation, both community members and officials feared that Zvi’s disappearance was the work of Iran-backed terror agents targeting Jews in countries known to host visitors and residents linked to Israel.

On Sunday morning, the fears of those worried about Zvi’s well-being were tragically confirmed. Security and intelligence agencies from a number of countries coordinated an intensive investigation that located his body in the city of Al Ain. It was not clear where he was killed.

Flashback to Mumbai

For Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, father of Rabbi Gavriel Hotzberg Hy”d, the rush of memories is almost too much to bear. Sixteen years ago this very week, he lost his son and daughter-in-law in a brutal murder that shook the world. Now, he’s just buried a grandson (Zvi’s wife Rivky is his granddaughter).

“Everything they used to say about my Gabi, they now say about Zvi,” says Rabbi Holtzberg, who for the past decade has been living in the Jerusalem suburb of Beitar. “And you know, both Gabi and Zvi sacrificed their lives sanctifying Hashem’s name — and they were both 28.”

To be such a hero, says Rabbi Holtzberg, is no small matter. It means leaving everything behind, uprooting yourself from the place where you were born, rarely seeing your family, and starting to build something new in a foreign place, where there’s no Jewish foundation at all.

“Along the way” he says, “there are challenges. You don’t always see immediate success, and in truth, you’re constantly being tested. The hardest part is that despite everything, you’re always wearing a smile, always radiating energy, and never giving in to a more depressing reality, no matter how difficult that reality might seem.

“Let me tell you a story,” he continues. “When Gabi and Rivky arrived in Mumbai, there was no mikveh there. If a person wanted to immerse, they had to either find a seaside location or travel to a different country. So Gabi decided he must build a mikveh for the Jews who come to Mumbai, and I did whatever I could to help him. He would lower himself into the pit using a rope, and in the intense heat, he worked with his bare hands to construct that mikveh, to bring more and more Jews closer to their Creator.

“But you know, the climate in India is not exactly ideal for building a mikveh. When it was hot, the ground was parched, and the mikveh remained empty. When the rainy season came, the rain would arrive in torrents, accompanied by winds that completely destroyed the pit he had dug. Yet Gabi never gave up. The passion that burned within him — to bring back lost souls — gave him no rest. He had a mission, and he gave everything for it. Zvi did too.”

After what happened to his son, did he have qualms about the location his grandchildren had chosen?

“To be honest, deep down, there were some worries about this step. Many Israelis go there for tourism, and it’s considered a tourist destination, but still, the fear was clear. After all, it’s a Muslim country, and not all Muslims are fond of us.

“It was clear there was some risk involved, but they explained that they wanted to go precisely because so many Israeli tourists visit the UAE. Ultimately, that was their guiding principle. They always asked themselves: How can we bring more Jews closer to Hashem? When they realized this was fertile ground for outreach, it became their mission, no matter what. They said, ‘If we don’t go there, who will?’ ”

Rabbi Holtzberg pauses, sighs, and continues. “Those were the same words Gabi once said. He explained that he was going to Mumbai precisely because so many Jewish tourists visited the area — and if he didn’t go, no one else would.”

Cooling Off

The office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu labeled the murder “an abhorrent act of anti-Semitic terrorism,” and pledged to use “all means” at Israel’s disposal to “deal with the criminals responsible for Zvi’s death to the fullest extent of the law.”

By Monday afternoon, pictures of the three suspects (blindfolded) had circulated across international media, but that’s as far as the information went. And no one, from family members to Chabad officials to Israeli operatives, is willing to divulge anything more.

This was hardly the first incident in which Iran-backed agents attempted to harm either Israelis (if Iran was indeed behind the attack), or Jews perceived as linked to Israel in foreign nations. In recent years, several plots have been uncovered, and the State of Israel repeatedly warned its citizens to avoid traveling to nations where they suspected Iran’s agents were plotting harm.

In 2022, Turkey and Israel jointly foiled an effort by Iranian intelligence agents to murder Israeli tourists in Turkey. Iran-backed agents, sometimes working with Hezbollah, have undertaken several attempts to kill Israeli diplomats traveling in the Middle East. These threats have steadily risen since the beginning of the war in Gaza, exacerbated by Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and direct fire between Israel and Iran.

Iran’s embassy in the UAE released a statement denying “allegations” of the Islamic Republic’s “involvement in the murder of this individual.”

In the same statement announcing the arrest of the suspected murderers, UAE’s Interior Ministry pledged to protect those within its borders, saying its “security agencies work around the clock to protect the stability of society and ensure the sustainability of the highest levels of security and safety that have been established since the founding of the state.”

UAE’s economy is largely driven by expatriates living there and foreigners engaging in tourism or business. The threat of terrorism cooling the increased commerce that resulted from normalization with Israel would be a serious blow to the nation, as well as a set-back for other Gulf states considering taking a similar path —likely part of a calculated goal of those who abducted and murdered Zvi Kogan.

No Fear

The murder of Zvi Kogan not only strikes the Jewish heart with grief, but also with fear over the implications of foreign agents roaming the world looking to terrorize Jews. For fellow Chabad shluchim who dedicate their lives to helping Jews around the globe, the tragedy takes on additional dimensions. Still, fortified with the same dedication that drove them to leave behind the comforts of large Jewish communities to spread Yiddishkeit to remote corners, attempts at intimidation only seem to strengthen their resolve.

Rabbi Moshe Blumenfeld, a shaliach in Lima, Peru, had studied in Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway at the same time Zvi did. Rabbi Blumenfeld was raised amid a culture of shlichus, making the circumstances of Zvi’s murder all the more painful.

“It’s hard to come to terms with the idea of a fellow shaliach being killed just for being a Yid and going to do what the Eibeshter wants him to do,” said Rabbi Blumenfeld.

“Zvi dedicated his life to spreading Yiddishkeit,” said Rabbi Zalman Mendelson, director of Chabad of Wyoming, headquartered in upscale ski town of Jackson Hole. “This doesn’t only touch Lubavitch. Zvi is a korban for all of Klal Yisrael, and to strike the same extended family twice touches a raw nerve.”

Rabbi Meir Kaplan leads Chabad of Vancouver Island, off the coast of western Canada. He said that while his new home is cut off from established Jewish communities, and despite recent anti-Israel activity, it’s always been a relatively safe corner of the world. News of Zvi’s murder brought home the level of self-sacrifice some shluchim make in choosing their mission.

“When I look at shluchim going to the UAE, there’s no question they’re taking more risks, and I have tremendous respect for them,” he said. “They’re not doing it because it’s convenient for them, but to help the Yidden there. They were there before Dubai became a popular destination. We all have different challenges, but we’re all in it together, and when a shaliach is killed, we all feel it.”

Even in locations not known to have hostility toward Jews, a common challenge and potential risk many shluchim share is being one of very few identifiable Jews for miles around, and sometimes the only one.

“We’re the face of Yiddishkeit in much of the world,” said Rabbi Mendelson. “That comes with a tremendous achrayus, and it’s not without risks. But we didn’t sign up for this because it’s easy.”

In keeping with the resolve that drives so many shluchim to forgo the physical and spiritual comforts of life in large Jewish communities, shluchim’s standard response to threats is to redouble their efforts.

“We don’t fight back with guns and bullets, we’ll leave that for the government of the UAE or Israel,” said Rabbi Mendelson. “Our response to more darkness is to bring more light. To be more outwardly Jewish than ever before, with zero fear and to encourage others to do so as well.”

Rabbi Kaplan made an effort to do just that in the wake of the Mumbai tragedy. As a response, he initiated a program of distributing Shabbos kits with challah, grape juice, and other essentials on a weekly basis to individuals on Vancouver Island, where kosher food is scarce. Sixteen years later, he’s still at it.

In many locations, rising anti-Semitic threats, sharpened by reactions to aftermath of October 7, have brought challenges to those trying to encourage more Jews to engage in Jewish activities. While that reality has necessitated more investment in security, Rabbi Kaplan says that there has also been a heighted interest in Yiddishkeit. Even amid anti-Israel demonstrations on Vancouver Island, attendance at classes, Shabbos meals, tefillos, and other events is at an all-time high. For the first time in his tenure there, Rabbi Kaplan was able to open a small Jewish day school.

“In Peru, I’ve seen that the more you show that there’s nothing to be afraid of or embarrassed about, the more you show another Yid to feel that way too,” Rabbi Blumenfeld said.

Amid the brew of emotions and practical challenges in the wake of the murder of Zvi Kogan, Rabbi Kaplan said that the responsibility of shluchim around the world only multiples.

“There are no words for the tragedy itself. But we need to remember that we’re not private citizens. People are looking up to us to see the emunah and strength that we have,” he said. “It reminds us of the responsibility we have to be the best version of ourselves so that we can, with Hashem’s help, pick other up with us.”

—Achia Batian contributed to this report.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1038)