Israeli authorities say the abduction and killing of Rabbi Zvi Kogan was an act of antisemitic terrorism, but investigators have not yet stated a motive.
The United Arab Emirates on Monday announced the arrests of three Uzbek nationals in connection with the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi, an attack that raised alarm over the safety of the small Jewish community in the country.
A statement from the U.A.E.’s interior ministry named the suspects in the abduction and death of Zvi Kogan as Olimboy Tohirovich, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, both 28, and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33. and included photos of them blindfolded and handcuffed.
Emirati authorities said they were still working to uncover the circumstances and motives of the crime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the murder “an abhorrent antisemitic terrorist attack.”
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Rabbi Kogan, 28, went missing on Thursday and was last reported seen in Dubai, the most populous of the nation’s seven emirates, according to an Israeli official. Israeli news outlets have reported that his car was found abandoned in Al Ain, a city in the adjacent emirate of Abu Dhabi, on the border with Oman. His body was found on Sunday.
The rabbi, a dual citizen of Israel and Moldova, worked in Emirates as part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a Hasidic branch of Orthodox Judaism that conducts Jewish outreach around the world. He also helped manage a kosher supermarket in Dubai’s affluent Al Wasl road neighborhood.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry official told The New York Times that the Israeli government hopes a forensic examination of the rabbi’s body can be completed on Monday, after which he would be flown back to Jerusalem for a funeral as soon as Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
The rabbi was likely targeted because he was a one of the more visible members of the Jewish community, the Israeli official said.
More Israelis and Jews have called the Emirates their home since the oil-rich country formally established ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords. The Emirates has presented itself as a tolerant country open to multiple faiths. The country’s first synagogue in generations was opened in February 2023 as part of the Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex that also includes a mosque and a church.
Yousef al-Otaiba, the Emirates’ ambassador to the United States, denounced Rabbi Kogan’s murder as “a crime against the U.A.E.”
Ismaeel Naar is an international reporter for The Times, covering the Gulf states. He is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. More about Ismaeel Naar