Chabad of Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya

Chabad of Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya

Rabbi Yehuda Marasow has opened Chabad of Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya, a new center for olim and English-speaking residents, in memory of Rabbi Zvi Kogan. Marasow served alongside Kogan in Abu Dhabi before Kogan was abducted and murdered in the United Arab Emirates in November 2024. The new center's first program is a free, English-explained Yom Kippur service open to residents of any background.

How was Rabbi Zvi Kogan killed?

Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi serving as assistant to the Chief Rabbi of the UAE, was abducted and killed on or around November 21, 2024, in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. He was 28. Kogan had gone missing that Thursday and ran a kosher grocery store in Dubai. Emirati authorities located his body on November 24, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called the killing an antisemitic terrorist attack.

Three suspects, all Uzbek nationals arrested in Turkey, were held over the killing. In March 2025, the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court sentenced three of the defendants to death and a fourth to life in prison, ruling that the murder was committed in pursuance of a "terrorist purpose," according to the state news agency WAM. Death sentences can be challenged on appeal under Emirati law.

Why did Marasow open a center in Kogan's memory?

Marasow, who served alongside Kogan in Abu Dhabi, has since moved to Israel with his family. "I served alongside Rabbi Zvi Kogan in Abu Dhabi, and after he was taken from us, I knew the only answer was to keep building what he believed in," he says. "Carrying this forward is what Zvi would have wanted."

Kogan had worked to expand Jewish life in the UAE following the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreement establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and the UAE, including securing wide availability of kosher food and opening the country's first Jewish education center. Marasow's new center extends that same outreach model to a different community: English-speaking families and olim settling in Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya.

How many olim are settling in Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya?

Herzliya was named among Nefesh B'Nefesh's leading destination cities for North American olim in 2025, alongside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Ra'anana, Netanya, and Modiin-Maccabim-Reut, according to the organization's year-end report. Nefesh B'Nefesh brought over 4,100 North American olim to Israel in 2025, the highest annual total in four years and a 12 percent increase over 2024's 3,706 arrivals. More than half of 2025 applicants cited renewed Zionism and solidarity following the October 7, 2023 attacks as their reason for making aliyah, the organization reported.

The pace has continued into 2026. Nefesh B'Nefesh recorded roughly 2,700 North American olim by late August, on track for more than 4,000 by year's end, among the organization's strongest years since it was founded in 2002. That steady arrival of English-speaking families into towns like Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya is the population Marasow's center was built to serve, offering a synagogue and holiday programming that assumes no prior religious background or Hebrew fluency.

What does "come as you are" mean at the new center?

The center's guiding principle is accessibility without prerequisite, Marasow says. "You don't need any religious background. You don't need to know the prayers or have ever opened a machzor. Just come. No judgment, no pressure, just a welcoming place to be part of something meaningful."

That approach shapes the center's inaugural program: a Yom Kippur service at Kiryat Yearim in Ramat Hasharon, held with English explanations throughout and free of charge. Services run from the fast's start at 6:13 p.m. and Kol Nidrei at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 20, through Neilah at 6:15 p.m. and the fast's end at 7:18 p.m. on Monday, September 21.

What is the takeaway for the community?

"No getting lost. Just getting into it," Marasow says. Through the center bearing his late colleague's memory, Marasow is building what he describes as a place where anyone can walk in and belong.