The United Arab Emirates’ once-flourishing Jewish community may be forced back into hiding as many fear for their lives after the shocking kidnapping and murder of a prominent young rabbi.
The death of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, 28 — whose body was discovered last week after the “heinous antisemitic terrorist act” — has reignited fear among Jews in the UAE that they are no longer welcome following four brief years of peace, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Although the exact circumstances of Kogan’s death remain unclear, his friends and family told the outlet that the rabbi and Kosher-grocery-store manager met a “bloody end” at the hands of his kidnappers.
Kogan, who also held Moldovan citizenship, vanished Nov. 21 in Dubai after agreeing in a text to meet up with a friend over the weekend.
When he never returned home, his wife, Rivky, who previously lost relatives to terrorism in India, alerted her local Jewish group, which contacted the authorities, according to the WSJ.
Kogan’s body was located three days later near the Oman border, rocking the UAE’s Jewish community, where the rabbi served as a spiritual and community leader.
His murder has now become an ominous sign that the prosperity and tolerance Jewish people found in the UAE since 2020 may be at an end, the community says.
When the UAE agreed to normalize its relationship with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords in 2020, more Jews in the country began to identify themselves in public and hold public services.
Kogan’s family told The Post he was excited to move to the UAE and foster a community for the thousands of Jews living there, including by opening up his own Kosher grocery store and helping run the activities of an Orthodox Jewish outreach group called Chabad.
“Being who Zvi was, he was a larger-than-life character. He seemed to be invincible in many ways, like nothing can go wrong with him,” his brother-in-law Rabbi Aharon Speilman had said. “He was on a mission and focused on why he was there.”
But tensions began rising in the region after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with UAE Jewish community members reporting several incidents where students were targeted in school as their aggressors yelled, “Free Palestine!”
Others used Google reviews to bash Rimon, the kosher supermarket where Kogan worked, giving the store one-star reviews referencing Palestine. One comment claimed the store lacked watermelons, signifying the colors of the Palestinian Authority’s flag.
Kogan’s kidnapping and murder is seen as a major escalation in the growing anti-Israeli sentiments in the UAE, with authorities struggling to maintain the short-lived status quo.
Just a day after Kogan’s body was found, UAE police enlisted the help of Turkish authorities to arrest three Uzbek nationals suspected of killing the rabbi.
Olimboy Tohirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, 28, and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33, were detained and charged with Kogan’s murder.
Officials have yet to reveal the motive behind the killing, but Israeli officials have said it was a clear act of antisemitism, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to bring Kogan’s killers to justice.
After Kogan’s death, Israel issued a warning for its citizens to avoid any non-essential travel to the UAE, with those already there warned to take extra precautions for their safety.
