Baby Born to the Slain Shliach From the Emirates

By COLlive reporter

Bedamayich chayi.

Mrs. Rivky Kogan (née Spielman), a Chabad Shlucha in the United Arab Emirates, gave birth to a baby girl on Chol Hamoed Pesach, bringing a ray of light during a year of suffering.

Just 20 weeks ago, Mrs. Kogan’s husband, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, was the target of Arab terrorists who abducted him and then brutally murdered him in November 2024.

Rabbi Kogan, 28, was operating the Rimon kosher supermarket in Dubai when 3 Muslim citizens of Uzbekistan led the attack. The 3 have since been sentenced to death and executed, while a 4th man was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Rabbi Kogan was born and raised in Jerusalem, where he learned in Litvish Yeshivos and then served in the Israel Defense Forces. In 2022, he married Rivky, a resident of Crown Heights who is the niece of Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg, the Chabad Shliach in Mumbai, India, who was killed in a terror attack in 2008.

The newborn girl is the first child of Rabbi Kogan HY”D and Rivky. She is also welcomed by her grandparents R’ Shmuel and Devorah Spielman of Crown Heights and Rabbi Alexander Sender and Etel Kogan of Jerusalem.

Chief Rabbi of the Emirates Levi Duchman wrote:

“We extend a heartfelt Mazal Tov to Rivky Kogan on the birth of her baby girl.

“We join the Kogan and Spielman families and all Am Yisroel in celebrating this special moment of simcha.

“This precious baby is a special continuation of her beloved father, who was brutally murdered, Reb Zvi Hakohen Kogan HY”D, and whose life’s mission continues to inspire us all.

“May we share only simcha and bracha, and may this young girl bring much joy, comfort, and light to her family and to all Am Yisroel.”