History of the Jews in the United Arab Emirates

Rabbi Yehuda Sarna is the Chief Rabbi of the UAE.[7] Ross Kriel is the President of the Jewish Council of the Emirates.[8] Rabbi Elie Abadie is Senior Rabbi of the UAE.[9]

The first synagogue in Abu Dhabi will be housed in the Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex dedicated to the three Abrahamic religions. The complex, designed by Sir David Adjaye, is currently due for completion in 2022.[10]

In 2019, the United Arab Emirates government announced the year of tolerance, officially recognizing the existence of Jews in the UAE. A Jewish benediction was recited to the President of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, as well as to the rest of the Emirates' rulers during Shabbat.[11]

The UAEs first Kosher Certification has been founded by Rabbi Levi Duchman and is the first to be fully licensed by the UAE authorities. Emirates Agency for Kosher Certification (EAKC) is the first legal entity responsible for the assessment of foods, products, processes and services to ensure compliance with Orthodox Jewish dietary laws. Armani/Kaf is the UAEs first Glatt Kosher Restaurant open in Dubai's Burj Khalifa, supervised under the EAKC.

A kosher catering company called Elli's Kitchen has been established in Dubai. The company is founded by Elli Kriel, a Jewish community member resident in the UAE.[12]

One thousand EAKC certified kosher chickens per week are provided to the community by local Shechita.[13] In May 2020, it was reported that the JCC of the UAE has imported the largest kosher meat shipment in the history of the community.[14][15][16]

A new Talmud Torah was reported in 2020 to have been recently established and now has around 40 pupils.[17][13]

On October 23, 2020, Chabad-Lubavitch appointed Rabbi Levi Duchman as the Chabad Shaliach to the UAE, making him the first Chabad Shaliach to a Gulf country.[18] He is the Chabad Rabbi in Abu Dhabi and Rabbi of the Beit Tefillah Synagogue.Solly Wolf is the head and the president of the JCC, a Chabad-linked organization based in Dubai.[19][20]

A Jewish Telegraphic Agency report in 1999 stated that: "A British university has banned Jewish authors from its courses at its campus in the United Arab Emirates. The University of Lincolnshire and Humberside has confirmed that books by Jews, as well as those that mention Jews in their bibliographies, are banned by its affiliate in the Persian Gulf state. In addition, the British Council, a state-run organization designed to promote British cultural achievements abroad, also conceded that it acquiesces in the censorship of works by Jews to accommodate "local political, religious or moral publishing laws."[21]

In July 2000, the Harvard Divinity School accepted $2.5 million from the founder of the United Arab Emirates, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. In 2002, the Zayed Center published a report on the Holocaust that said Zionists - not Nazis - "were the people who killed the Jews in Europe." This led to an uproar that the money be returned and that the center be closed.[22] In August, the UAE government closed the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, which is a think tank that published and distributed literature, sponsored lectures, and operated a website. The center published some books with themes such as "The Zionist Movement and its Animosity to Jews," and "Al Buraq Wall, Not Wailing Wall" [...] According to a statement from President Zayed's office, the Government closed the center because its activities "starkly contradicted the principles of interfaith tolerance advocated by the president."[23] In 2007, there were "some anti-Semitic or religiously intolerant editorials, op-eds and editorial cartoons in the English and Arabic-language electronic and print media. The Arabic-language press, including government subsidized and quasi-governmental newspapers such as Al-Ittihad, Al-Bayan, and Al-Khaleej, carried editorial cartoons depicting negative images of Jews; Al-Bayan carried religiously intolerant articles as well." As an example, they cite Al-Ittihad, which "carried a cartoon of "the Zionist Lobby" who was depicted as a stereotypical Jew with a hooked nose and wearing a yarmulke;" an op-ed from Al-Bayan in 2006, which poses the question as to whether Zionists were a "part of humanity" and compared Israelis to Nazis; and a cartoon in Al-Ittihad, "in which a stereotypically depicted Jew was standing astride the globe, a reference to the long-standing anti-Semitic conspiracy that Jews control the world." All of the examples stated were described by the U.S. State Department as antisemitic.[24]

In February 2019 and as part of the United Arab Emirates's national tolerance program, the Ministry of Tolerance officially recognized the UAE's local Jewish population and, according to Rabbi Marc Schneier, were in talks of establishing a proper synagogue, kosher foods and even a mikveh.[1]

Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the chief Rabbi of Poland, during a visit to Abu Dhabi said "There were Jews in Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt and across North Africa, but this corner they didn’t get to...the fact the newest Jewish community is in an Arab country is a tremendous statement." The Rabbi attended the Global Conference of Human Fraternity alongside Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi, he clarified “There is a wrong stereotype that we use that says different religions can’t speak to each other – that a Jew can’t talk to a Muslim”. According to the Rabbi, Pope Francis visit to the UAE depicts the presence of all religions coexisting together and confronting a stereotype. He said “I’m hopeful, naively perhaps, that this could be another step to break that. It is also helpful that it is in the UAE to break that stereotype.”[25] In August/September 2020 the last 100 Jews of Yemen are in the process of Immigrating from Yemen to U.A.E.[26]

• History of the Jews in Bahrain
• History of the Jews in Kuwait
• History of the Jews in Oman
• History of the Jews in Qatar
• History of the Jews in Saudi Arabia
• Yemenite Jews

• Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages. trans. Joseph Simon. Pangloss Press, 1993. ISBN 0-934710-07-4
• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. trans. Marcus Nathan Adler. 1907: includes map of route (p. 2) and commentary.
• Works by Benjamin of Tudela at Project Gutenberg
• Shatzmiller, Joseph. "Jews, Pilgrimage, and the Christian Cult of Saints: Benjamin of Tudela and His Contemporaries." After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1998.
• Jewish Virtual Library: Benjamin of Tudela.