Zvi was born in Rehovot on August 15, 1931 to Yehuda, an Orthodox religious Zionist who made aliya in 1920 from Poland and settled in Rehovot, where he worked in citrus growing. His mother Tikva, née Wozhnitza also emigrated from Poland in the 1920s. 

     His received his elementary education in the Mizrahi Tahkemoni School in Rehovot. He studied at a secondary school in Tel Aviv and then in the Noam Seminary in Pardes Hannah. At the same time, he was an active member in the Bnei Akiva movement Rehovot Branch.

     He joined Lehi in his youth at the beginning of 1946, mainly due to his father’s nationalist Zionist opinions. As a fifteen-year-old adolescent he was engaged in putting up posters, distributing campaign material and transporting packages and deliveries. He participated in ideology courses and in light weapons classes.

     Zvi joined the IDF in June 1948 within the framework of the recruiting of senior students, and his military service was spent as part of the first Nahal cycle in Tirat Zvi. After he finished his military service he resumed his studies and has a Masters Degree from the Hebrew University extension Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot.

     In 1954 he married Rivka Sapir, a native of Poland, and they had four children who have all been absorbed into village settlements. He is the grandfather of eight grandchildren. In 1999 he settled with his family in Moshav Beit Gamliel.

     During his military duty in the reserves he underwent a Commanding Officers Course and participated in the Sinai Campaign, the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. From August 1961 until his retirement he worked in the Instruction Services deparment of the Ministry of Agriculture as the Regional Instructor for Plantations in the Lakhish area. At the same time he established a private plantation in his moshav. He went on pension in 1996.