Chabad Shliach In UAE Feared Abducted Or Murdered

Rabbi Zvi Kogan, a Shliach in Abu Dhabi, has been missing since Thursday, and Israel’s security services reportedly fear he was kidnapped or murdered, it emerged Saturday.

Kogan, who serves as an assistant to the Chief Rabbi of the UAE, Rabbi Levi Duchman and manages the kosher supermarket in Abu Dhabi, has not been in touch with his wife since Wednesday. He missed scheduled meetings that day and after his wife failed to reach him by phone, she called the Chabad House’s security officer who contacted the security authorities.

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement confirming Kogan’s disappearance and said authorities were treating the incident as a suspected act of terrorism.

The PMO added that the Mossad intelligence agency had launched an “extensive” investigation into the incident alongside Emirati authorities.

At the same time, the National Security Council issued a reminder that it has advised for some time not to travel to the United Arab Emirates for non-essential purposes.

A statement from the UAE interior ministry said Abu Dhabi was “implementing extensive measures in its search for” Rabbi Kogan, without mentioning his Israeli citizenship.

Kan News reported on Motzei Shabbos that according to Emirati police, three Uzbek citizens followed Kogan and abducted him on Thursday afternoon and fled to Turkey. Channel 12 News reported that Israeli intelligence officials believe he was murdered. Other reports said he [or his body] was whisked out of the UAE to Iran via Oman.

Israeli intelligence officials have traveled to the Emirates to investigate the case together with Emirati authorities, who are leading the investigation. The UAE is one of the most heavily surveilled countries in the world and security cameras are everywhere.

Ynet reported that Kogan’s car was found abandoned in in Al Ain, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Abu Dhabi, where Kogan is based. It added, without citing sources, that officials suspect a number of Uzbek citizens assaulted the rabbi and later fled to Turkey.

Kogan is a dual Israeli-Moldovan citizen, and has been part of the Abu Dhabi Chabad chapter since Israel normalized ties with the UAE in late 2020. 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.

Kogan’s wife is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was murdered along with his wife Rivky in a terror attack at the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai in 2008. That attack occurred in Cheshvan, just before the Kinus Hashluchim of that year.

An Israeli who lives in Abu Dhabi told i24 News: “He and his wife are very involved in the community. They organize events, Friday nights, dinners. Really quiet and nice people. It’s shocking that something like this could happen in such a secure place. There are cameras everywhere here. It probably happened elsewhere.”

Another Israeli said: “His family is devastated and the Israeli and Jewish kehilla is in shock.”

The UAE became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a US-brokered agreement in 2020, dubbed the Abraham Accords. It has maintained the relationship throughout Israel’s more than 13-month war in Gaza.

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

Please say Tehillim for Tzvi Hakohen Ben Etel.

Rabbi Zvi Kogan gave a tour of a Kosher supermarket in Dubai