Human Rights Voices

Emirati authorities have found the body of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, an emissary to Abu Dhabi’s Chabad chapter missing since Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry said in a joint statement Sunday.

Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi has been in contact with Kogan’s family in the UAE, the statement said, and family members living Israel have also been updated.

The statement called the killing of Kogan “a despicable antisemitic act of terror” and pledged that Israel would use all available means to bring the killers to justice.

“With great pain we share that Rabbi Zvi Kogan, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Abu Dhabi, UAE, was murdered by terrorists after being abducted on Thursday,” Chabad said in a brief statement on Sunday.

Kogan’s body was found in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Abu Dhabi, though it is not clear if he was killed there or elsewhere, former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara told Reuters in an English-language interview in Dubai.

The Ynet news site reported that Kogan’s car was found abandoned in Al Ain. It added, without citing sources, that there were signs of a struggle in the vehicle.

Officials suspect a number of Uzbek citizens recruited by Iran assaulted the rabbi and later fled to Turkey, the report said.

An unnamed official close to UAE authorities told Channel 12 that the country was angry and in shock, adding that senior state and religious officials were investigating.

“It happened after years when there wasn’t an unusual security or nationalistic incident,” the official was quoted as saying. Kogan had been missing and presumed dead since Thursday.

Grief and anger in Israel

Lawmakers and ministers in Israel released a flood of statements Sunday grieving his death and vowing a response to the murder.

At the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to use all available means to catch Kogan’s killers. “None of them will be spared,” he pledged.

Netanyahu expressed his appreciation for the UAE’s cooperation in the investigation, and promised to “strengthen our ties in the face of the attempts from the axis of evil to damage the peaceful relations between us.”

President Isaac Herzog said he mourned “with sorrow and outrage,” adding in a post on X: “This vile antisemitic attack is a reminder of the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people.

“It will not deter us from continuing to grow flourishing communities in the UAE or anywhere – especially with the help of the dedicated commitment and work of the Chabad emissaries all over the world.”

Herzog also thanked UAE authorities for their “swift action,” and said he trusted they will do all they can to bring the killers to justice.

Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that “Israel will not rest nor be silent until those responsible for this criminal act pay for their actions.”

“The State of Israel mourns the death of Rabbi Zvi Kogan,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wrote on X, calling the killing an “antisemitic terror incident” and vowing that the UAE and Israel would cooperate in the investigation.

National Unity chair Benny Gantz also shared his grief on X, vowing that Israel would act and that his “death will not be in vain.”

Following the incident, the National Security Council reiterated its travel warning to the UAE, saying there remains a threat against Israelis and Jews in the country.

The UAE has a Level 3 travel warning, the NSC said, meaning all nonessential travel should be avoided.

“Avoid visiting businesses, gathering places, and entertainment venues identified with the Israeli and Jewish population,” the warning said. “Maintain increased vigilance in public places (including restaurants, hotels, bars, etc.). Avoid displaying Israeli symbols. Cooperate with local security forces, follow their instructions, and report immediately if you have been exposed to terror activity.”

Travelers are also urged to avoid posting on social media and to lock their profiles online.

Nephew-in-law of Mumbai terror victim

Kogan, 28, was a dual Israeli-Moldovan citizen, who reportedly served in the Israel Defense Forces’ Givati Brigade.

He had been part of the Abu Dhabi Chabad chapter since Israel normalized ties with the UAE in late 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

According to Chabad, Kogan worked to expand Jewish life in the UAE alongside Chief Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Duchman, including ensuring the wide availability of kosher food and opening the first Jewish education center in the country.

Among the many milestones was the founding of the first Jewish education center in the Gulf, and making kosher food widely available.

The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday. As the wars have roiled the region, the store has been the target of online protests by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters. Mezuzahs on the front and back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off when an Associated Press journalist stopped by on Sunday.

Kogan’s wife Rivky joined him at the posting after their wedding in 2022. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was murdered along with his wife in a terror attack at the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai in 2008.

According to Ynet, Kogan participated in the first-ever Holocaust remembrance day ceremony in the Gulf state in 2021, and led the Yizkor prayer during the event.

Israel has been on high alert for Iranian efforts to harm Israelis and Jews around the world through its various agents and proxies, after the countries exchanged direct military blows for the first time this year.

Iran launched major drone and ballistic missile attacks against Israel in April and October, in response to Israeli strikes on its proxies in Lebanon and Syria. In late October, Israel retaliated with a series of strikes in which dozens of aircraft targeted strategic military sites across Iran as well as air defense batteries.

Iran has vowed to respond but has not yet done so in any major capacity.

Shock among Jews in UAE

Former MK Kara said the UAE’s Jewish community was in “shock” at the news of Kogan’s murder, but that Israelis and Jews would still visit and build ties in the Gulf country.

“I am sure that lots of Jewish (people) will continue to invest here. No way to stop this relationship and this cooperation,” said Kara.

Jewish community members in the UAE said informal synagogues in Dubai were closed after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault over security concerns, with Jews instead gathering to pray at home.

The one government-approved synagogue in the UAE remains open in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. There are no official synagogues in Dubai, the UAE’s biggest city and commercial hub.

There are no official statistics on the number of Jews or Israelis living in the country, but estimates from Jewish groups suggest the community numbers in the several thousand.