Israel Confirms Rabbi Missing in UAE Was Killed

Israel announced on Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi, Zvi Kogan, who had gone missing in the United Arab Emirates, had been found. His death is being investigated as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office emphasized that Israel would take all necessary actions to ensure justice for Kogan’s death. No immediate comment was made by the UAE government.

Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi from Moldova, had disappeared on Thursday. He was known for running a Kosher grocery store in Dubai, a city that has seen a significant influx of Israelis since the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE under the 2020 Abraham Accords. Despite the region’s increasing tensions—especially after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel—this agreement has held. However, Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza and its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon have sparked anger among some Emiratis and other Arab nationals in the UAE.

The UAE government initially reported Kogan as “missing and out of contact” but did not mention his Israeli citizenship, only noting his Moldovan nationality. The country’s Interior Ministry stated that authorities had launched an investigation after receiving the report. Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killing, expressing confidence that the UAE authorities would work diligently to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent ultra-Orthodox Jewish organization. His store in Dubai, the Rimon Market, had previously been targeted by online protests, and mezuzahs on the doors appeared to have been ripped off. Kogan’s wife, Rivky, is a U.S. citizen and the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, the country has been suspected of involvement in past kidnappings and killings in the UAE. Iran is known to have operated intelligence activities in the UAE, with previous incidents including the 2013 kidnapping and killing of British-Iranian national Abbas Yazdi and the 2020 kidnapping of Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd.