Chabad-Lubavitch of Odessa announced on Sunday that Tzvi Hirsch (Gregory) Zvirgzde, a graduate of the Or Avner Chabad educational institutions and a soldier in the Ukrainian army had fallen in battle.
Zvirgzde, born and raised in the Jewish community in Odessa, stayed involved long after graduation, sending his own children to his alma mater and participating in community events. Since the war broke out in February 2022, Zvirgzde served in the 34th Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was fighting when he was killed.
“Tzvi Hirsch was like a son to us all—a student in our school, a member of our community and a soldier who defended his land with his own body. He embodied a combination of Jewish gentleness and extraordinary courage,” said Chabad Rabbi Avraham Wolff, chief rabbi of Odessa and Southern Ukraine. “Our hearts are with his family—his wife Anastasia, his children Lev and Alisa, his mother Yevgenia Itzhakovna and his sisters. We will always remember him with love and pain. May his soul be bound in the bond of life. The entire community mourns and prays for the elevation of his soul and embraces his family during this difficult time.”
On June 4, the Jewish community of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, announced the death of Andrey Kurovskiy, who taught computer programming at the Or Avner school in Odessa for over two decades.
The Or Avner network of schools—founded by Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in partnership with philanthropist Lev Leviev, who named the project for his father—emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union, determined to educate Jewish students starving for their heritage after decades of being forced underground. Inspired by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, who ensured the light of Judaism was never extinguished in the Soviet bloc—the schools became the cornerstone of this renaissance, educating tens of thousands of Jewish children in the ways of their heritage.
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