An Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates who had been missing since Thursday has been found murdered, Israeli and Emirati authorities announced on Sunday. Israeli officials called the death of the rabbi, Zvi Kogan, an act of terrorism, without providing any further details.
The Emirati government said in a statement on Sunday that “three perpetrators involved in the murder” had been arrested. It offered no additional information on the arrests but said “full details” would be disclosed when the investigations conclude.
Rabbi Kogan, a dual citizen of Israel and Moldova, worked in Abu Dhabi as part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a spiritual branch of Orthodox Judaism that conducts Jewish outreach around the world.
“With great pain we share that Rabbi Zvi Kogan, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., was murdered by terrorists after being abducted on Thursday,” Chabad said in a brief statement, adding that his body had been recovered early Sunday morning.
According to Chabad, Rabbi Kogan had worked “for several years in establishing and expanding Jewish life in the Emirates.” His wife, Rivky, joined him there after their marriage in 2022, the movement’s statement said.
The Israeli government has said it possesses information indicating that the killing was an act of terrorism. Israel has not specified who might have been behind such an attack in the Arab Gulf state, although it has repeatedly accused Iran and its allies of seeking to target Israelis abroad.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called Rabbi Kogan’s killing “a despicable antisemitic terrorist attack.” In taped remarks to cabinet ministers, he said that Israel would “exact justice” on whoever was responsible.
More Israelis and Jews have traveled to the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich Gulf state, since the country formally opened ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords. The small Israeli and Jewish community there now has religious centers and even kosher catering businesses, in accordance with Jewish religious law.
But relations have grown chillier in the wake of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which prompted popular outrage across the region. Emirati government statements discussing Rabbi Kogan’s disappearance referred only to his Moldovan citizenship — not his Israeli citizenship.
On Sunday, the Israeli government reissued a travel warning urging its citizens to avoid nonessential travel to the United Arab Emirates. Those in the country should conceal “anything that could identify you as Israeli” and refrain from heading to sites associated with the Israeli and Jewish communities there, the Israeli national security council said.
Yousef al-Otaiba, the Emirates’ ambassador to the United States, denounced Rabbi Kogan’s murder as “a crime against the U.A.E.” that constituted “an attack on our home, on our values, and on our vision.” While he mentioned that the victim was a rabbi, he too elided Rabbi Kogan’s Israeli citizenship.
“In the U.A.E., we welcome everyone,” Mr. al-Otaiba said in a statement. “We embrace peaceful coexistence. We reject extremism and fanaticism of every kind.”
Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said she was “horrified by the news that Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan was kidnapped and murdered.”
“We appreciate the actions of U.A.E. authorities to hold accountable those who planned and carried out this heinous act,” Ms. Lipstadt wrote on social media. “The ongoing targeting of Jewish communities worldwide is abhorrent and must stop.”
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