UAE’s Jewish community lays low in wake of Gaza war
Population that grew after 2020 normalisation with Israel has cancelled events and public worship
After the United Arab Emirates normalised ties with Israel in 2020 under Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords, Jewish worshippers in the Arab country were able to celebrate Hanukkah publicly for the first time.
Candle-lighting ceremonies were conducted at hotels, and a Jewish community group even erected a menorah next to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper.
One Jewish resident, who moved to the UAE around the time, recalled how locals would even stop outwardly Jewish people and ask to take photos with them.
“Especially among the young generation of Emiratis, being Jewish or Israeli used to be the coolest thing,” said the resident, who like most others interviewed requested her name not be used.
“Since October 7,” she said, “there is much less of that, if at all.”
More than two years since Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, which strained ties and provoked outrage across the Arab world, the public visibility enjoyed by the UAE’s burgeoning Jewish community — rare in the region — has suffered a sharp reversal.
Safety and political concerns have resulted in the toning down of overt religious dress and the closing of nearly all public prayer services apart from the official synagogue in Abu Dhabi, according to Marc Sievers, director of the American Jewish Committee in Abu Dhabi, officials and locals.
Public services once held daily in large Dubai hotel halls, including for the Sabbath and major holidays, have been halted — in line with requests from local officialdom, according to several people familiar with the matter.
“Since the beginning of the Gaza war there has been a general guidance” from Emirati authorities, Sievers said: “‘We are here to protect you and you are welcome, but please lower your profile’.”
All this was before the attack on a Hanukkah festival in Sydney this month, which killed 15 people and led to Jewish communities around the world cancelling events due to security concerns.
For the UAE, which remains arguably Israel’s most important relationship in the Arab world, such moves have been a major departure from recent years.
Though highly contentious in the region, the 2020 normalisation deal — the signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s first term — helped the UAE and Israel expand business ties, boost trade and jump-start tourism. Bilateral trade reached $3.2bn in 2024, according to Israeli data.
Allowing Jewish worship also bolstered the UAE’s image as a promoter of religious tolerance, and helped solidify the pact as the start of a “warm peace” with Israel, in contrast to the chillier reception by Egypt and Jordan after they established diplomatic relations in previous decades.
Now, however, the only remaining public venue is the massive Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, a complex housing places of worship for the three monotheistic faiths, all of the same size and with signage in Arabic, English and Hebrew. The synagogue there has remained open, in service to the estimated 600 Jewish people living in the capital.
In Dubai, the UAE’s financial hub, private initiatives organised in individual villas and apartments have sprouted instead. One Israeli involved with Jewish life in Dubai said that while “officially there are no minyans” — the 10-man quorum required for public worship — a local resident or visitor can find a service if they have the right connection within the community.
One concern for UAE officials, well-connected locals surmised, was the fear of public backlash from the region on social media over outward displays of Jewishness and Israeli-ness. “The rest of the region will look at it and ask, ‘Why are you friends with them?’” the Israeli said.
While the UAE’s relations with Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government have been fraught at times, Abu Dhabi maintains that diplomatic ties have allowed it to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and keep open an important channel of communication.
But another concern for UAE officials is security related. The Abrahamic Family House, according to the one Jewish resident, has been turned into a “fortress”, with security “massively tightened”.
In particular, the brutal murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Kogan in Dubai last year shocked local Jewish residents and the city’s small Israeli community, which locals estimate to number about 6,000 permanent residents.
Kogan was a well-known emissary locally in the prominent Hasidic Chabad movement, known for its global outreach and far-flung network of Jewish community centres.
Sievers said that in the wake of Kogan’s killing, the message from UAE authorities was that “this was an attack on us as well”. Abu Dhabi charged three Uzbek nationals, who were quickly extradited from Turkey, and sentenced them to death.
The Israeli government earlier this year raised the travel advisory for the UAE, warning of the risk of terror attack by Iranian operatives and other actors.
A UAE official said the country “has an outstanding track record in ensuring the security and safety of its diverse population”, and is “home to more than 200 nationalities, coexisting in peace and harmony”.
Without dismissing the security risks, multiple Israeli and Jewish residents said they still felt quite safe and welcome in the UAE — especially relative to parts of the world that had seen a big increase in anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents since October 7.
In the Muslim and Arab world in particular, the UAE remains an outlier owing to the large and overt presence of Israelis even among countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel, save perhaps for Morocco.
“There’s a travel warning to nearly every location these days,” one Israeli travel agent specialising in package deals to the UAE said, speaking before the Sydney attacks. “It’s safer than Europe and here [Israel].”
The autocratic UAE keeps a tight grip on any political activity, including demonstrations. Israeli and Jewish residents who spoke to the Financial Times cited only a handful of incidents that made them feel insecure since the start of the Gaza war — such as antisemitic comments at a school and a pro-Palestine remark from a passer-by at a mall. Both incidents were dealt with swiftly by the authorities, the local residents added.
“You can be in a hotel pool with Arabs from all over the region, no one will dare say anything,” said the travel agent, who splits his time between Israel and Dubai.
Indeed, Israelis have continued visiting — as indicated by a cursory look at the hashtag #Dubai on Israeli social media. Some 25 flights have also continued to make the three-hour journey daily on Israeli and Emirati carriers through most of the past two years, even as many international carriers suspended their Tel Aviv services.
There are, by one count, already eight kosher restaurants in Dubai, all still operating, and tour companies catering to religiously observant visitors continue to do a brisk business taking groups into the desert and out to sea.
“It’s all still quite vibrant, but you need to do it intelligently,” says the Israeli involved with Jewish life in Dubai. “The message from the authorities here is, ‘Come, but do us a favour: don’t be too loud’.”