Zvi Kogan

Zvi Kogan was born in 1996 in Ramat Shlomo

Kogan was born in 1996 in Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem, to Alexander and Etel Kogan. He grew up in a Litvak Haredi family with his older brother, Reuven.

As a teenager he studied at Yeshiva Maoz Chayil in Jerusalem, at Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer in Bnei Brak and at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He then did his mandatory service in the Givati Brigade of the IDF.

From 2020 he was a Chabad representative in Abu Dhabi and an assistant to Levi Duchman, the chief rabbi of the UAE and his brother-in-law. He managed a kosher supermarket in Dubai, where he lived. In 2022 he married Rivky Spielman, a U.S. citizen.

Kogan went missing on 21 November 2024, and his body was found in Al Ain on 24 November. Three Uzbek suspects were arrested in Istanbul and extradited to the UAE. In March 2025 three men were sentenced to death and a fourth defendant to life imprisonment.

He was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. His daughter was born in April 2025.