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‘Abhorrent Antisemitic Terrorist Attack’: Rabbi Kidnapped and Murdered in UAE
November 24, 2024

The body of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, deputy director of the Chabad House in Abu Dhabi, was located on November 24 by Emirati authorities after he went missing the previous Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident “an abhorrent antisemitic terrorist attack.” Kogan, 28, was an Israeli-Moldovan dual national and was married to a niece of a rabbi who was murdered in the 2008 Islamist attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai. Kogan doubled as supervisor of a kosher supermarket in Dubai. The Islamic Republic has a history of launching intelligence operations in the UAE, where its operatives are suspected of monitoring Iranian nationals in the country. Iran is also likely to have kidnapped both British-Iranian Abbas Yazdi in 2013 and German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmah in 2020; Sharmah was recently executed in Iran. READ MORE

CHABAD.ORG We Called Him “Rabbi Steve” Anyone who attended the Kogans’ Shabbat table will never forget the experience. Zvi taught me how to host and truly appreciate guests. Even with a full table, he ensured that everyone felt comfortable and had their moment to shine. He set the tone for the most energetic and memorable Shabbat meals. Just last week, I moved back to the UAE—this time with my wife. The first person to greet us was Zvi. The person who offered to help with our suitcases was Zvi. The person who helped us arrange a car was Zvi. The person who guided us through our first kosher run was Zvi. He introduced us to all the right people for all the right things.

JEWISH PHILANTHROPY Kushner brothers and their families pledge $2 million to Chabad of UAE as Jewish community reels after Rabbi Zvi Kogan killed The families of Jared and Joshua Kushner pledged a total of $2 million to Chabad of the United Arab Emirates on Monday in memory of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, the 28-year-old Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary who was killed last week after being abducted in Dubai. The donations from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, followed by Joshua Kushner and his wife, Karlie Kloss, come as the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates — and in the Arab world in general — reels from the aftermath of the killing.