Kin of slain Israeli rabbi say they warned him against moving to UAE for this tragic reason

Grieving kin of Dubai terror-victim Rabbi Zvi Kogan said Sunday they always thought he was “invincible,’’ even as they recalled warning him against moving there, given their tragic ties to a past terrorism act.The widow of the 28-year-old murdered rabbi had an aunt and uncle killed in a terror attack in Mumbai in 2008.“This is like reopening old wounds,” said Rabbi Aharon Spielman, the brother of Kogan’s widow, Rivky, to The Post.“My mother specifically had her reservations, being that her brother was murdered in Mumbai,” Spielman said about his younger sister and her husband Kogan moving to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates after they married in 2022.Rivky’s uncle, Gavriel Holtzberg, along with his wife, Rivka, were murdered during the 2008 terror attacks in India, Spielman said.

Brutal shootings and bombings organized by Islamist militants took place over four days that November, targeting luxury hotels, a Jewish cultural center and other populous places, leaving 175 people dead.In the UAE, a country considered one of the safest in the world, Kogan’s murder is “clearly antisemitic,” Spielman said.

At least one Israeli official has blamed Iran for the rabbi’s slaying.The UAE said Sunday that three suspects have been arrested in Kogan’s murder but did not elaborate.“He was targeted because he was a Jew.Not only was he a Jew, but one who proudly raised the Jewish banner,” Spielman said of Kogan, who worked for the Orthodox Jewish faith-spreading group Chabad.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denounced Kogan’s death Sunday, three days after he was kidnapped.

Bibi called the rabbi’s death a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act” and vowed retribution.Kogan’s determination to move to the UAE eventually won over his wife’s family, despite their reservations.“Being who Zvi was, he was a larger-than-life character.He seemed to be invincible in many ways, like nothing can go wrong with him,” Speilman said.

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