The targeted killing of a peaceful religious leader is an exceptional and horrifying event whose adverse effects can ripple outward. That is all the truer when dealing with a situation as sensitive as that of the young Jewish presence in the United Arab Emirates.
This community blossomed and grew in the context of the Abraham Accords, the groundbreaking peace agreement in 2020 between Israel and four Arab and Muslim-majority countries, including the UAE, that led to a flowering in trade, travel and diplomacy between these nations. The recent murder of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan there shows that none of this can be taken for granted. Peace, like a garden, is not a natural state but the result of careful tending and the aggressive weeding out of threats.
Kogan was one of just a handful of rabbis living and working in the UAE, tending to a flock of an estimated 4,000 Jewish residents, about half of whom are Israeli. Even in such select company, he stood out. Kogan managed and operated Rimon Market—a kosher supermarket in Dubai that opened in December 2022. He also served as an aide to Rabbi Levi Duchman, director of Chabad of the UAE, and an executive member and co-founder of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic Countries, through which Duchman works with Jewish communities across the region.
Community members had incredible stories to tell of his exceptional deeds and values: his hosting of open Shabbat dinners every Friday night, his lack of “office hours” and his constant availability to help community members in distress of every kind. Kogan leaves behind a grieving widow—New York native Rivky Spielman—whose aunt and uncle were Chabad emissaries to India and murdered by terrorists in 2008, along with four of their guests at Chabad of Mumbai.
Kogan’s assassination was no random act of violence. Information in Israel’s possession indicates that he may have been under Iranian surveillance. Iran has been known to commit terrorist attacks against Jewish communities around the world, as when their operatives murdered 85 people, Jewish and non-Jewish, in the bombing at the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. Just last year, Greek police narrowly thwarted an Iranian terrorist attack on a Chabad center in Athens.
Three people, all citizens of Uzbekistan, have been arrested for Kogan’s kidnapping and murder after apparently fleeing to Turkey before being turned over to the Emirati justice system by Turkish authorities.
Damage has undoubtedly already been done. Israel warned against all nonessential travel to the UAE, saying that “[t]here is concern that there is still a threat against Israelis and Jews in the area.” Sadly, the UAE’s state-run news agency, in announcing his killing, referred to Kogan merely as a “Moldovan citizen,” his other nationality, and deliberately avoided mentioning his Israeli citizenship or his role as a rabbi.
The ripples of the killing are reflected well beyond the Middle East. Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism, wrote that she was “horrified” by “this heinous act” and that “the ongoing targeting of Jewish communities worldwide is abhorrent and must stop.” Sean Savett, the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, stated: “This was a horrific crime against all those who stand for peace, tolerance and coexistence.” Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom, called the assault a “devastating blow” to peace. Jared Kushner, who helped negotiate the Abraham Accords, his brother Josh and their families have pledged $2 million to Chabad of the UAE in Kogan’s memory so that they can rebuild and further expand on his legacy.
Kogan left an incredible history of goodness, spiritual growth and community leadership that helped form and guide one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in the Islamic world in modern times. Through his life and actions, he showed that Jews and Muslims can live together in harmony, each free to worship God in their own way with constant respect and admiration for the other. The twisted souls who ended his life, like their commanders in Tehran, are too sunk in darkness to see the beauty of his compelling message. But the world sees it, and a brighter day will dawn—a day that looks with respect and admiration at the trailblazing leadership of Kogan and with repugnance on the cruel jihadi regime in Iran, whose violence and cruelty will bring about its own demise. May that day come soon!