UAE arrests three over rabbi’s abduction, murder

Israel didn’t formally point a finger but suspects Uzbek citizens with ties to Iran were involved in Rabbi Zvi Kogan’s abduction and killing.

Zvi Kogan went missing from Dubai on Thursday. Picture: Chabad.org.

A missing Jewish community leader found dead in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday was abducted and killed in an “act of antisemitic terrorism,” Israel said.

Israeli-Moldovan citizen Zvi Kogan, 28, went missing from Dubai on Thursday afternoon, prompting an investigation by Israel’s Mossad spy agency after suspicions were raised that he was abducted in an act of terrorism. Kogan, a rabbi, was an emissary of the Jewish Chabad movement to Abu Dhabi, where he lived with his wife.

Israel said on Sunday morning that Emirati authorities had found Kogan’s body, confirming fears in the local Jewish community.

“The murder of Zvi Kogan, of blessed memory, is an abhorrent act of antisemitic terrorism,” read a statement from Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office. “The State of Israel will use all means and will deal with the criminals responsible for his death to the fullest extent of the law.”

Israel didn’t formally point a finger but suspects Uzbek citizens with ties to Iran were involved in Kogan’s abduction and killing, said a person familiar with the investigation. Iran has relied on Uzbek citizens in the past for foreign missions, the person said. At least some of the suspects are believed to have fled to Turkey, where their cars were found, the person said.

Meantime, authorities in the Emirates arrested three people in connection with the killing, the country’s interior ministry announced Sunday evening.

After the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war, Israel warned its citizens and Jews that they might be the targets of attacks abroad by Iran or Iran-linked groups, among others. Amid these concerns, Israel had warned its citizens to limit foreign travel and minimise openly identifying themselves as Israeli or Jewish.

Israel’s National Security Council said on Sunday that it believes there is a continuing threat to Israelis and Jews in the region.

The investigation began on Thursday, when Rabbi Kogan didn’t arrive at planned meetings and the people expecting him informed Rivky Kogan, his wife, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Rivky Kogan then turned to the security officer of the Chabad in the Emirates who contacted the local authorities for help. Those authorities eventually brought Israel into the investigation, the person said.

Rabbi Kogan’s body was found about 1 1/2 hours from Dubai, the person said. Israel has had long-running concerns about Iranian state actors trying to kill or abduct Israelis abroad. Iranian intelligence agents moved to kill Israeli tourists in Turkey in 2022, in a plot uncovered by Israeli and Turkish authorities. Iran has also tried to kill Israeli diplomats, and Iran’s closely linked group, Hezbollah, attempted to kill a former Israeli defence minister. In August, Israel issued a rare travel warning against visiting countries that border Iran, amid threats that Iran-linked actors would try to harm Israelis.

Iran’s Embassy in Abu Dhabi denied allegations of Tehran’s involvement in Kogan’s death, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

Rabbi Kogan helped establish the Chabad community in the UAE Israel and the Emirates first normalised relations in the 2020 Abraham Accords. He worked as the supervisor ensuring the adherence to Jewish dietary laws at Dubai’s kosher supermarket, Rimon, according to two members of the local Jewish community.

The rabbi arrived in the UAE before the country normalised relations with Israel and was involved in helping build up the community, said his friend Dudi Rubenstein. He thinks Rabbi Kogan’s role as a central player in the Jewish community probably made him an easy target.

“If terrorists wanted to harm the Jewish community in Dubai, they knew exactly who to choose,” said Rubenstein, in a radio interview with Israel’s public broadcaster.

Abu Dhabi’s Chabad provides Jewish religious support, including for religious ceremonies and celebrations, for the predominantly expat Jewish community in the UAE and broader Gulf region, as part of a global mission to support Jewish life spanning 100 countries.

Chabad’s emissaries are known for supporting Jewish life in countries without large Jewish populations. In some countries, Chabad is the sole or main provider of kosher food or organised religious services. Some Chabad communities are forced to keep a low profile, including in Muslim countries, out of security concerns. Chabad emissaries have also been the victims of past terrorist attacks, including a deadly 2008 attack in Mumbai.

The death of Rabbi Kogan is a setback for the nascent Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates and broader ties between Israel and the UAE A Jewish community flourished following the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2020, becoming one of the biggest in the Middle East outside Israel.

The Jewish presence in Dubai and Abu Dhabi represented the first new congregations in an Arab nation since the founding of Israel in 1948.

For the UAE, the establishment of the Jewish community was an endorsement of the country’s broader strategy to become an open-for-business hub that could attract global talent, regardless of religion or nationality.

Many Jews living in the UAE, an authoritarian monarchy, said they felt safer living in the Arab Gulf state than in cities in Europe. The UAE built a compound with a mosque, church and synagogue in Abu Dhabi called the Abrahamic Family House. The Jewish population grew to roughly 2,000 in 2022, with a range of denominations, from liberal to Orthodox, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, however, Jews in the UAE say they have felt compelled to keep a lower profile, conducting worship only in private homes rather than in public gatherings at hotels, though the synagogue at the Abrahamic compound has remained open.

The killing of Rabbi Kogan has sparked concerns among Jews about their safety in the UAE

“We have moved to this hospitable country primarily for safety and security,” said Edwin Shuker who settled in the UAE a few years ago. “We hope and expect the authorities not to shirk their responsibility to protect the Jewish community.” In a statement, the UAE interior ministry stressed the country’s commitment to safeguarding citizens and residents. About 90 per cent of the UAE’s roughly 10 million population is expatriate.

The recent caution in the Jewish community reflects how tensions over the war in the Middle East have rippled around the world, with attacks against Israelis and Jews in Europe and the U.S. Earlier this month, mobs in Amsterdam beat Israeli soccer fans after releasing a call for a “Jew hunt” on social media.

The Chabad movement has also been less visible in the UAE Chabad opened its first chapter in the UAE in 2020 and has since helped establish a kosher certification agency, the Rimon kosher supermarket and a Jewish nursery in Dubai called Mini Miracles, according to the website of its UAE chapter.

Jewish community members said Chabad-led public worship had also largely stopped over the past year. A Dubai police car was stationed Sunday outside the Mini Miracles nursery and security guards said teaching had been cancelled. Rimon was also closed.

The movement’s chief rabbi in the UAE, Levi Duchman, was a visible ambassador for the Jewish community in the UAE and had a public wedding in Abu Dhabi in 2022, inviting journalists and senior Emirati figures. Videos of Arab Muslims and Jews dancing together at the event were shared widely on social media.

The Wall Street Journal