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More than 30 people gathered at Harvard Chabad Monday evening for a vigil honoring the life of Israeli-Moldovan Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was abducted and killed last week in the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE announced Monday morning that three Uzbek nationals were arrested for Kogan’s murder.
Speakers at the vigil described the murder as a “horrendous act of antisemitic violence,” though a motive for the murder has yet to be identified by investigators.
In the vigil’s opening remarks, Harvard Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi stressed the importance of gathering in moments of tragedy.
“The first thing to do is to come together as a family, as a people, and to hug each other, to strengthen one another,” Zarchi said.
During the vigil, Rabbi Marc Baker — President and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston — described Kogan’s killing as an “antisemitic incident” and a “fundamental assault on all our humanity.”
Several speakers said that although they did not know Kogan personally, the loss of the rabbi was akin to the loss of a family member.
“A Jew anywhere is killed, and it’s like one of our family members, a cousin, a sibling,” Baker said. “We feel it deep, and we feel it personally.”
According to Zarchi, there were hesitations about holding the vigil so close to the beginning of Thanksgiving break, when many students have already left campus. But Issac R. Mansell ’26, a student leader of Harvard Chabad, said in a speech that he encouraged Chabad to hold an event to commemorate Kogan’s murder.
“I thought it was very important to mark this, because otherwise this senseless violence can start to feel normal,” Mansell, a Crimson Editorial editor, said.
In the aftermath of Kogan’s death, the vigil’s speakers encouraged the attendees to exercise “kindness” and “compassion” with one another.
“All you have to do is be a little bit kinder, a little bit more accepting, and fight this battle just with light,” said Elkie Zarchi, a co-founder of Harvard Chabad.
Harvard Law School student Alex J. Friedman was the only attendee at the vigil who had met Kogan.
“I didn’t plan to speak,” Friedman said. “I just felt as the only person in the room that seemed to know Zvi personally, I had an obligation to say something.”
Friedman described a day spent with Kogan and his brother Reuven Kogan — who attended Harvard Business School in 2023 — when the two were both in Abu Dhabi last year. Though his interaction with Kogan was brief, Friedman said he noticed Kogan’s generosity and commitment to his work in the UAE.
“I think it’s neat that he went out there. It was the UAE, and there were pieces of Torah that were never picked up there,” Friedman said. “He came there to pick up those pieces, to build that community there.”
“He did it with such joy,” he added. “You never saw him without a smile, the entire Shabbos I sat with him.”
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
