Stephen Wise Temple’s Rabbi David Woznica is part of a diplomatic delegation of American rabbis currently traveling in the Middle East to celebrate the Abraham Accords between the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Israel. Rabbi Woznica and 11 other rabbis (representing Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative communities) were brought to the UAE last week on a trip sponsored by the UAE and Bahrain, both of which are Muslim-majority countries.

During the trip to the UAE and Bahrain, which began on June 20, Rabbi Woznica and the rest of the delegation met with government officials and other leaders, before heading to Israel this week. They have met with a former U.S. Ambassador, the Israeli consul general, and the chair of the Manara Centre, and received a diplomatic briefing from a Bahraini official.

Before heading to Israel, the delegation also celebrated Shabbat with Ross Kriel, the President of the Jewish Council of the Emirates and leader of the UAE’s Jewish community. The South Africa-born Kriel emigrated to Dubai in 2013, two weeks before Rosh Hashanah, and he and his wife Elli became the first family in the city to keep kosher. In fact, his wife later founded Elli’s Kosher Kitchen, which accommodates the dietary needs of Jewish tourists in the Emirates. The villa in which they live is also home to the local synagogue.

In the video in this post, Kriel sends a message of welcome to any Jews who wish to visit Dubai.

“You really will have a paradigm shift in your understanding of [the region],” says Kriel, who has gone on record stating  that the Abraham Accords make some community members feel safer in the UAE than in Europe.

The Accords, a series of joint normalization statements mediated by the United States in 2020, helped establish diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain. A game-changer in Middle East diplomacy, the Accords marked the first instance of Arab-Israeli normalization since the Israel-Jordan peace treaty was signed in 1994 by King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin (Z”L).

As Rabbi Woznica continues his trip, he looks forward to sharing his experience and observations with our Stephen Wise Temple community.