Jewish residents of the United Arab Emirates fear for their lives after the murder of a rabbi

The United Arab Emirates’ once-thriving Jewish community could be forced into hiding again after the shocking kidnapping and murder of a prominent young rabbi as many fear for their lives.

The death of 28-year-old Rabbi Zvi Kogan – whose body was discovered last week after the “heinous anti-Semitic terrorist attack” – has reignited fears among Jews in the UAE that they are no longer welcome after four short years of peace, reported the Wall Street Journal 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 suffered a “bloody end” at the hands of his captors.

Kogan, who also had Moldovan citizenship, disappeared in Dubai on November 21 after agreeing in a text message to meet a friend over the weekend.

When he never returned home, his wife Rivky, who had previously lost relatives to terrorism in India, alerted their local Jewish group, which contacted authorities, according to the WSJ.

Kogan’s body was found three days later near the border with Oman, shocking 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 that the Jewish people have found in the United Arab Emirates since 2020 may be coming to an end, the community says.

When the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize its relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords in 2020, more Jews in the country began identifying themselves in public and providing public services.

Kogan’s family told the Post that he was looking forward to moving to the United Arab Emirates and building a community for the thousands of Jews living there, including by opening his own kosher grocery store and helping lead the activities of an Orthodox Jewish outreach group called Chabad.

“The way Zvi was, he was a larger-than-life character. “He seemed invincible in many ways, as if nothing could 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 after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, tensions in the region increased. Members of the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates reported several incidents in which students were attacked in school as their attackers shouted “Liberate Palestine!”

Others used Google reviews to denigrate Rimon, the kosher supermarket where Kogan worked, giving the store one-star reviews related to Palestine. One comment claimed that there were no watermelons in the store, a reference to the colors of the Palestinian Authority flag.

Kogan’s abduction and murder is seen as a significant escalation in growing anti-Israel sentiment 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 arrested and charged with Kogan’s murder.

Officials have not yet revealed the motive for the killing, but Israeli officials said it was a clear act of anti-Semitism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to bring Kogan’s killers to justice.

Following Kogan’s death, Israel warned its citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to the United Arab Emirates and those already there were urged to take extra precautions for their safety.