For almost a decade, Rabbi Levi Duchman – Rabbi to the United Arab Emirates has led a Jewish Community in the United Arab Emirates.
The Chabad House in the UAE has become a center of community and activity for Jews living in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Jews worldwide. Chabad is a household name for Jews globally, and the Chabad movement is popular worldwide. The Chabad Lubavitch movement was founded by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Today, Chabad Emissaries are everywhere in the world, even in the most remote places, providing local Jews and tourists with an open house, Torah studies, Kosher food, and any material assistance they need.
Since 2014, Rabbi Levi Duchman has established the following organizations apart from the Chabad team in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to sustain and promote Jewish life in the United Arab Emirates.
The Jewish Community in Dubai – Jewish Community Center (JCC)
Together with his brother, Rabbi Mendel Duchman, Rabbi Levi heads the local Jewish community in Dubai. Since the Abraham Accords in 2020, Dubai has become a Jewish hub with hundreds of families relocating to the city apart from the preexisting local community. Rabbi Levi’s dedicated team services the needs of Jewish families. The JCC serves as a community center for all Jewish needs; Prayers, holidays, lessons, help, etc.
The Jewish Community in Abu Dhabi – Beit Tefilah Synagogue
In Abu Dhabi, Rabbi Levi Duchman leads the only licensed and recognized Jewish community (License number S.J. 001) in the capital city of Abu Dhabi called Beit Tefilah Community, licensed by the Department of Community Development, Abu Dhabi. They have recently started a weekly Hebrew Club for the community’s children. Beit Tefilah serves the local and tourist Jewish community in Abu Dhabi.
Emirate Agency for Kosher Certification (EAKC)
In September 2020, Rabbi Levi Duchman established the UAE’s first local kashrut certification agency and effectively opened the UAE and the Gulf to the world of Kosher food. Emirates Agency for Kosher Certification (EAKC) certifies a wide range of products and establishments that produce and/or serve food, such as hotels, restaurants, slaughterhouses, caterers, bakeries, take-out shops, cruise lines, airlines, and more. EAKC also certifies hotels on a short-term basis to cater to groups and delegations.
Women’s Mikvah
In 2021, the first kosher women’s Mikvah construction was completed in Dubai. To learn more, click here.
Mini Miracles Nursery
Rabbi Levi Duchman, along with prominent members of the Jewish Community, founded the Mini Miracles Nursery – the first and only secular Jewish nursery in the country. Mini Miracles was established in 2020 and currently serves as the only Hebrew-speaking Nursery in the region.
Hebrew School Dubai
Hebrew School Dubai is the first after-school Jewish studies program launched in the UAE under the vision of Rabbi Levi Duchman. It is an inspirational program of Hebrew reading and Jewish education founded on the belief that successful education results from exploration and creativity. It was inspired by how Jewish families send their kids for Talmud Torah, a time-honored tradition amongst the global Jewish community.
The weekly Friday class is hosted at the Mini Miracles Nursery, the first Hebrew Speaking Nursery in the United Arab Emirates, and currently enrolls more than 50 students aged between 2-12years.
Chevra Kadisha of the UAE
With the help of the UAE Government, Rabbi Levi Duchman formalized the Jewish Burial Council (Chevra Kadisha) of the UAE on the occasion of a Jewish death from the local or global Jewish Community in the United Arab Emirates.
