Feiga and Pinchas Birger had a solidly Zionist worldview and a strong belief in the need to establish a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, and passed these views on to their children.
At the beginning of the war, in 1940, Zev Birger was among the founders of the Sons of Zion Organization that undertook the Zionist education of Jewish teens and struggled to preserve Hebrew culture and language, which had been outlawed by the Soviet authorities.
Birger was partner in publication of the hand-written journal that was distributed in the Lithuanian underground, in the ghetto and even in the camps, where five issues were circulated, handwritten by the editor Shlomo Frankel, prior to liberation.
Zev parted from his American saviors, and went to Frankfurt where he joined the illegal immigration operation that brought Holocaust survivors to the Land of Israel.
After his discharge, the Birgers lived in Haifa and Zev was a founder of the Customs and Excise Department, and helped shape the young State's tax system.
He identified the relative advantage of Israel's human capital for culture and creativity, and therefore set new goals for promoting publishing, design and electronic (later, hi-tech).
Trudi and Zev's sons Doron, Oded and Gili Birger serve on DVI's Board of Directors today.
He considered this an opportunity to make Jerusalem into an international meeting place, a venue for cultural dialogue that would pave the way for tolerance and peace.
In 1999, William Morrow published an English version of Zev Birger's memoir, No Time for Patience: My Road from Kaunas to Jerusalem.
In his eulogy, the British author Ian McEwan, who was awarded the prestigious Jerusalem Prize in 2011, said: "He saw how low humanity could sink, and then he rose and gave so much.
Similarly, the Japanese author Haruki Murakami, who was awarded the prestigious prize in 2009, wrote: "I heard the tragic news of Zev's death.
President Shimon Peres also eulogized Birger and wrote: "Only someone like Zev could have brought authors with international reputations to Jerusalem and make it into a literary capital."
In June 2011, he died after being hospitalized in coma for ten days, as result of a head injury sustained in a traffic accident in Jerusalem.