It’s a narrative as previous as Jewish historical past itself. A neighborhood establishes itself, and inevitably splits into the synagogue you go to and the one you don’t, because the previous joke goes.
Solely this time it’s in Dubai, the place a younger rabbi from the Chabad Lubavitch motion is going through a backlash and an official reprimand, after a concerted public relations marketing campaign introducing his new congregation in current weeks persistently uncared for to acknowledge the existence of the town’s established however media-shy Jewish neighborhood.
It might have been the feel-good story of the summer season: the small however vibrant Jewish neighborhood of the United Arab Emirates popping out of the woodwork, opening social media accounts and giving interviews about Jewish life within the Gulf.
However native authorities final week ordered the individuals behind this explicit neighborhood — a small group that splintered off from the town’s current congregation — to “instantly” droop their social media accounts, The Occasions of Israel has realized.
Relatively than accomplish that, nonetheless, the maverick group, led by enterprising Chabad rabbi Levi Duchman and his businessman affiliate Solly Wolf, has merely modified the identify, description and profile photographs of its Twitter account, which for a number of weeks created the impression they had been the nation’s formally acknowledged Jewish neighborhood.
Rabbi Levi Duchman within the Dubai Chabad home. (Display seize)
The Twitter account, initially referred to as “Jewish Neighborhood of the UAE,” has been renamed “Jewish Neighborhood” and not claims to be “official” in any method.
The group’s web site remains to be functioning, headed by a “Jewish Neighborhood of UAE” emblem in English and Hebrew.
A educated supply advised The Occasions of Israel that Duchman, in defying the instruction he acquired from the Dubai authorities, has angered the powers-that-be within the emirate and is thereby jeopardizing his possibilities of acquiring for his congregation the formal licensing required for non secular teams.
Duchman, who hails from the US however has lived within the Gulf for a number of years, was for a while an energetic member of the established Jewish neighborhood in Dubai, the existence of which was first reported by The Occasions of Israel in December 2018.
However in current months, Duchman opened his personal neighborhood middle, together with a synagogue and area for Jewish research programs, in a distinct a part of the town. The middle appears to be like like many different Chabad homes all over the world, however on this case a big image of the motion’s late chief Menachem Mendel Schneerson hangs on a wall reverse a sequence of portraits of the Emirate’s royal household.
Some observers thought-about the breakaway “Jewish Neighborhood of the UAE” a reputable effort to arrange a Chabad middle alongside a longtime congregation — referred to as Jewish Neighborhood of the Emirates — although they questioned why Duchman and his companions selected a virtually an identical identify.
A display shot of the Twitter account of the ‘Jewish Neighborhood of the UAE’ earlier than it was modified (courtesy)
Others noticed it as a “hostile takeover” try by the outreach-focused Hasidic motion, which has previously been criticized for transferring into an space with an small established Jewish presence and trying to remold the neighborhood it its picture. In 2004, as an illustration, expenses that Chabad was “pushing itself into the neighborhood” in Prague and deposing the city’s chief rabbi made all of it the best way to a rabbinical court docket in Jerusalem.
Final month, the breakaway neighborhood launched an aggressive public relations marketing campaign, which aggravated not solely the established Jewish neighborhood but additionally native authorities.
Duchman didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark, nor did his affiliate Wolf.
Davening in Dubai for a decade
The primary Jewish neighborhood within the UAE has been working in Dubai for a decade, initially with tacit however extra not too long ago with overt help from the native authorities, and is at the moment within the means of formally turning into a licensed non secular neighborhood.
Ross Kriel, the president of the Jewish Neighborhood of the Emirates, or JCE, declined to remark for this text.
Ross Kriel, the president of the Jewish Neighborhood of the Emirates, left, hosts former Canadian PM Stephen Harper at his Dubai synagogue often called ‘the villa,’ April 2019 (courtesy)
In late Might, Duchman’s “Jewish Neighborhood of the UAE,” which is supported by rich Ukrainian businessman Naum Koen, opened purporting to characterize the “official” channel of the nation’s Jewish neighborhood. It printed photographs of the neighborhood’s president, Solly Wolf, with senior Emirati officers, and a professionally produced video that includes a cantor chanting a Jewish prayer for the well-being of the UAE, its leaders and its army forces.
“The blessing, sung in Hebrew, is ready to footage of the UAE’s main landmarks, art work of UAE leaders, and males within the conventional black and white Jewish prayer scarf often called the tallit,” is how the Saudi-owned TV channel Al Arabiya, which relies in Dubai, described the video’s content material.
The clip garnered appreciable media consideration, with shops from Bloomberg to , Israel’s state broadcaster, all marveling on the uncommon glimpse right into a Jewish neighborhood within the coronary heart of the Arab Gulf.
“A good looking video from the Jewish Neighborhood of the UAE. They’ve not too long ago joined Twitter and are a should comply with,” gushed the nation’s ambassador to the UK, Mansoor Abulhoul.
Wolf, a profitable salesman earlier than turning into the brand new neighborhood’s president, gave interviews to Israeli and worldwide media, talking about his congregation as if it had been the one established and accepted neighborhood within the nation and by no means mentioning the existence of one other synagogue, one he used to attend for years.
“It’s a really nice honor,” Wolf, 71, told Ami Magazine in a frontpage interview when requested what it means to him to be the president of the Jewish neighborhood of the UAE.
Immediately for the First Time Ever, and afternoon many months of exhausting work, I’m proud to current an Unique look into the Dubai JCC neighborhood on this week’s !!!! In shops tonight.
— Shloime Zionce | שלומי זייאנץ
Advertisement
“I’m positive that there are others who is perhaps higher at this than I’m, as I’m not the sort of one that offers lengthy speeches. I wish to work quietly behind the scenes. However I’m very proud to be a part of making historical past, and I hope that sooner or later there shall be ten shuls within the Gulf,” he stated, utilizing the Yiddish phrase for synagogue.
It’s unclear what number of Jews at the moment stay within the UAE. Wolf believes there are “roughly 1,500 Jews unfold out in all seven emirates that make up the nation.” Others estimate the quantity to be within the low a whole lot.
The brand new neighborhood’s social media accounts function photographs displaying Wolf, who has been dwelling in Dubai since 2002, with Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the nation’s de facto chief and different prime officers within the nation.
However a number of sources aware of the Jewish neighborhood within the Gulf advised The Occasions of Israel that many of those photographs had been taken years in the past, and that Wolf has by no means met any Emirati official in his capability as consultant for the Jewish neighborhood.
That these photographs had been now publicly posted on-line in connection along with his ostensible position as president of the Jewish neighborhood angered native authorities and triggered them to ask that the social media account be closed.
The photographs of Wolf and the UAE leaders had been nonetheless out there on the brand new neighborhood’s Twitter account on the time this text was posted.
of along with
— Jewish Neighborhood
collectively His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan the Minister of Tolerance
Advertisement— Jewish Neighborhood
Whereas the group’s Twitter web page was modified and not purports to characterize the whole neighborhood, its web site, www.jewishuae.com, nonetheless consists of the phrases “Jewish Neighborhood of the UAE.”
As well as, a Wikipedia page lists Wolf as the only head of Dubai’s Jewish neighborhood and falsely claims that the emirate’s “first everlasting synagogue… is led by Rabbi Levi Duchman since 2015.”
The edit history of that page exhibits that references to the longstanding Jewish neighborhood in Dubai had been eliminated by a Canadian consumer named ShemtovCA, a reputation typically linked to the Chabad motion.
What number of shuls does Dubai want?
Members of the JCE, the veteran neighborhood made up largely of American and European Jews within the Gulf on enterprise, began gathering on Jewish holidays in a venue colloquially know as “the villa” in 2010. For the final 5 years, they held Fashionable Orthodox companies there each Shabbat. Initially, the leaders of the neighborhood didn’t object to Duchman’s breakaway congregation, provided that Chabad typically attracts totally different audiences.
The ‘villa’ synagogue in Dubai (courtesy)
Neighborhood leaders, who’ve historically been discreet and averted media consideration, have eyed the publicity Duchman’s neighborhood sought with nice unease.
“In the beginning, Rabbi Levi was a part of the synagogue on the villa, which had been in existence earlier than he got here in,” a supply aware of the Jewish neighborhood in Dubai advised The Occasions of Israel. “He tried to take management, which was not acceptable to the unique neighborhood, so he determined to go off on his personal. I believe two shuls within the UAE just isn’t needed, as the scale of the neighborhood doesn’t warrant it.”
In the long term, my hope is that there are going to be a number of shuls within the UAE. But it surely needs to be performed with coordination
Nevertheless, different sources, who spoke with The Occasions of Israel on situation of anonymity, stated that Duchman’s actions, which included bringing kosher meat to Dubai, served the neighborhood properly.
“Particularly younger individuals gravitate to Levi. His minyan has actually taken off,” stated a frequent Jewish traveler to the Gulf. “Having rooster on Shabbat is a sport changer, for the reason that villa is all vegetarian.”
Within the video beneath, filmed just a few months in the past, associates of Duchman are seen displaying the breakaway neighborhood’s new premises:
Wolf, in an interview with Israel’s Ynet, identified that his neighborhood operated a Talmud Torah Jewish day college the place 45 kids find out about Judaism.
“It is vitally transferring to see the youngsters singing the Passover songs and studying the weekly Torah portion,” he stated. “I want on all Jewish communities all over the world what now we have… The rabbi is an unbelievable younger man who’s cherished by everybody.”
A member of ‘the villa,’ the synagogue of the Jewish Neighborhood of the Emirates, holds a Torah scroll, November 2018 (Israel Calera)
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, the non-resident chief rabbi of the Jewish Neighborhood of the Emirates, tried to sound diplomatic but didn’t disguise his considerations concerning the new rival shul.
“It’s solely pure that at a sure level of time there can be a number of expressions of Jewish life in Dubai,” he advised The Occasions of Israel in a current interview.
“Though the long run could be very promising, the current remains to be very delicate. Probably the most regarding, not too long ago, was the looks of a Twitter account that used mainly the identical identify of the prevailing Jewish neighborhood of the Emirates. But it surely’s not the identical entity,” he stated.
“In the long term, my hope is that there are going to be a number of shuls within the UAE. But it surely needs to be performed with coordination. I hope that we are able to get this cleared up so we are able to go ahead,” he stated.
Sarna, a well known New York-based rabbi and interfaith activist, has been acknowledged because the neighborhood’s chief rabbi by a number of senior Jewish leaders throughout the globe, together with Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Shlomo Amar, former UK chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and the heads of the Rabbinical Council of America, the Convention of European Rabbis and the Worldwide Rabbinic Fellowship.
“The truth that there may be for the primary time in centuries a brand new Jewish neighborhood established within the coronary heart of the Arab World is nothing in need of historic.” Earlier this yr, Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, Government Director of The Bronfman Heart for Jewish Scholar Life at NYU, was introduced as the primary Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Neighborhood of the Emirates (JCE). He mirrored on the importance of this nascent neighborhood within the UAE. #YearOfTolerance #UAEUSA
פורסם על ידי ב- יום שישי, 15 בנובמבר 2019
Advertisement
The present episode concerning the Chabad synagogue just isn’t the primary time Duchman has brought on discomfort amongst Gulf authorities. In 2016, he dropped at Bahrain a gaggle of Jewish businessmen, who had been filmed singing songs concerning the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple at Manama’s historic Bab al-Bahrain building. The episode made some waves in the local press, to the chagrin of the Bahraini hosts.
“Main the group of Orthodox Jews to the area underneath the pretext of them being businessmen after which dancing and singing in the midst of the capital of Bahrain was completely unacceptable,” a supply aware of the Jewish neighborhood within the Gulf advised The Occasions of Israel.
“He’s very overbearing, naive and doesn’t perceive the complexities of the Jewish communities within the Arab world.”
Quickly, a 3rd synagogue within the UAE
The UAE has not too long ago made nice strides in presenting itself as an open nation that respects all religions. President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan declared 2019 to be the “The Year of Tolerance” within the UAE. On this context, the nation introduced the constructing of a large interfaith compound in Abu Dhabi that may also embrace a synagogue.
The so-called Abrahamic Household Home is slated to open in 2022, and it’s at the moment unclear who shall be invited to maneuver into the constructing.
The Abrahamic Household Home, to be in-built Abu Dhabi, UAE (courtesy of The Larger Committee for Human Fraternity)
Elli Kriel, the spouse of the JCE’s president, not too long ago opened a catering enterprise referred to as “Elli’s Kosher Kitchen,” which has additionally together with UAE Tradition Minister Noura al-Kaabi it as a brand new chapter in “Gulf meals historical past.”
“Simply final month, a brand new kosher caterer launched in Dubai to serve the rising Jewish neighborhood, the primary new neighborhood within the Arab world in additional than a century,” the UAE’s ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, wrote in an unprecedented June 12 op-ed in Israeli each day Yedioth Ahronoth.
Covert ties between Israel and the Emirates have been ongoing for years, however in current months Abu Dhabi has been more and more open about it. Al-Otaiba’s op-ed — the first-ever by an UAE diplomat for an Israeli paper — warned Jerusalem in opposition to its deliberate annexation of components of the West Financial institution, however on the identical time stated his nation was willing to cooperate with Israel in a variety of fields.