The murder of Rabbi Tzvi Kogan, H"YD, has left the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates deeply shaken.
According to the UK’s Guardian, Rimon Market, the kosher supermarket managed by Rabbi Kogan in Dubai, was closed on Sunday. The store had been the target of online harassment from Palestinians over the past year.
An Associated Press journalist who visited the market reported that the mezuzahs on both the front and back doors of the store appeared to have been ripped off.
The Israeli and Jewish community in the UAE began operating openly in 2020 following the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between the UAE and Israel, the first such agreement in 30 years between an Arab country and Israel. Despite stable UAE-Israel relations throughout the 13-month war in Gaza, antisemitic and anti-Israel protests worldwide have led Jews in the Emirates to lower their visibility.
Community members shared with Reuters that after the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel, unofficial shuls in Dubai were closed due to security concerns, with Jews opting to daven at home. Dubai, the UAE's largest city, has no official synagogues, with the only formal shul in the country located in Abu Dhabi, the capital.
While there are no official statistics on the number of Jews or Israelis living in the UAE, Jewish organizations estimate the community numbers in the thousands, according to Reuters.