WESTPORT – There has not been a homicide in this town since 1996. On the night of Dec. 8, the 15-year streak was broken when jeweler Yekutiel (Kuti) Zeevi was shot and killed during an apparent robbery at his business.
As the Ledger went to press on Tuesday, local and state police released a sketch of the alleged murderer, based on security camera tapes.  Zeevi’s associate, Ronen Konfino, was also wounded in the attack. The vice president of A.N. Frieda Diamonds in New York, Konfino, 48, remained in stable condition at Norwalk Hospital.

Kuti Zeevi

Born in Tel Aviv, Zeevi grew up on a moshav and served as a commando in the Israeli Navy after high school. He and wife Nava came to Westport in the late 1970s, where they both taught Hebrew at Temple Israel and raised two children. Son Neer is a Geriatric Fellow at UConn Health Center in Farmington and lives in New London with his wife, Liora. Daughter Tali Zeevi married Kevin Trager of West Hartford, and died in 2007 after a long battle with leukemia.
Zeevi opened Y.Z. Jewelry Manufacturing in the late 1980s, a fixture in the region known for custom engagement rings and high-end jewelry design. He and Nava were members of Israelis-in-Connecticut, a regional social group founded by Westport resident Relly Coleman, who has known the Zeevis since she and her husband moved to the town in the early ‘80s.
“The Israeli community was devastated to learn of Kuti’s death,” Coleman says. “He was a gentle soul with a big heart and our heart goes out to Nava, Neeri, and Liora.”
Zeevi was also an avid soccer fan and a longtime member of the Late Knights, a local recreational men’s soccer team that plays weekly in Westport’s informal “mini UN” league. Even after knee surgery, when Zeevi could no longer run, “he loved to play goalie,” says teammate Fred Cantor. “He wouldn’t hesitate to throw his body on the ground in an attempt to make a save.”
Rabbi Robert Orkand of Temple Israel in Westport officiated at Zeevi’s funeral on Sunday, Dec. 11.
Early on Tuesday morning, the Zeevis’ first grandchild was born at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. In an email to Israelis-in-CT, Nava wrote, “Little boychik has landed. He is 6 lbs., 14 oz., looks handsome just like his grandpa… born at 6 a.m. Mother and baby doing well.”