Ze’ev son of Yehezkel and Sarah, was born in Poland 1925 in the town of Paintsho in the Lodz region, to a religious family with four children. The home was very Chassidic and pious yet very Zionist. Ze’ev studied at a cheder. His brother and sister belonged to the Zionist movement, influencing the parents to make aliya 1936. Ze’ev came to Eretz-Yisrael with his parents followed a few months later by another brother. His brother and sister remained in Europe and perished in the Holocaust. Their first residence was in Afula; after eleven months they moved to Kishon St Tel Aviv. Ze’ev studied at Talmud Torah till age 14.
Afterwards he went to help his parents who worked in the candy industry. At fourteen he joined ‘Brit- Hachashmonaim’ youth-group, where the name Gali stuck to him (Hebrew acronym for Scaffolds Shall Not Frighten Us). The spirit of the movement captivated him; he absorbed Uri-Zvi Greenberg’s poetry. From there the path to Etzel was short. In 1945 he joined Lehi, code named Gideon. His underground activities included surveillance, contacts, and distributing leaflets. Once while putting up an info-bulletin with the headline “A Year Since the Weapons Search in Ramat-Hakovesh”, British policemen caught him. He was bailed out till sentencing. Discharged for lack of evidence, he returned to underground activities, maintaining contacts and recruiting. The arrest of his friend Yehuda Feder made him change his code name to ‘Yehuda’.
In 1947 he got engaged to his former neighbor Fruma Tauba (Chassida), recruiting her to Lehi. After marriage in 1948 their home served as a Lehi work place, and sheltered Lehi escapees from the Jerusalem Prison. After the Declaration of Independence, he joined the IDF in Sheikh-Munis with his comrades, and served in the 89th Battalion of the 8th Brigade.
After discharge Ze’ev returned to work in candy manufacturing. He has two sons and seven grandchildren.