Portrait of Rabbi Zvi Kogan shared on social media. (Screenshot)
The kidnappers of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was murdered in the United Arab Emirates in late November, were taking him to Oman before he was killed, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoted by the Israeli daily Haaretz, citing a person familiar with the investigation.
The rabbi's body was found with his car in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), near the border, on Sunday morning, Nov. 24, according to the newspaper. He had been missing in the UAE since Thursday, Nov. 21. His relatives told the newspaper that his end was bloody, although the details are still unclear.
Kogan, the owner of a kosher supermarket in Dubai, had been based in Abu Dhabi since the normalization of relations between the Emirates and Israel in September 2020.
The remains of the Hasidic rabbi arrived in Israel on Nov. 25, where the funeral took place in the evening. The day before, the Emirati authorities announced that three suspects of Uzbek origin had been arrested: Olimboy Tohirovich (28), Makhmudjon Abdurakhim (28) and Azizbek Kamilovich (33).
Kogan was an emissary to the United Arab Emirates for Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic movement with a global missionary commitment to strengthening Jewish identity and connecting Jews to their faith, also known as Chabad. The group's UAE branch supports thousands of Jewish visitors and residents in the country and "invests significant effort to meet the growing demand for Jewish infrastructure, including various religious services and institutions, such as synagogues and prayer, education and wellness programs, community institutions and services, and more," the organization's website states.
