Rabbi Elie Abadie on Jewish-Muslim Ties in the UAE and the Future of the Abraham Accords

October 7 reshaped the Middle East, and it left a question hanging over the region: which direction does it go from here?  Rabbi Elie Abadie has spent years building Jewish-Muslim relationships in the UAE, on the ground where the Abraham Accords turned from a diplomatic agreement into daily life. In this conversation, he shares what that coexistence actually looks like, why he believes the Accords matter more now than ever, and his hopes for partnership and progress in a region at a crossroads.  A grounded, optimistic perspective on what the future could hold.

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HOST (Jennifer) (00:02):

Hello, welcome to this podcast called Finding Inspiration. It's a 20 or so minute weekly podcast where we interview someone with an amazing story. After the show, I know you're gonna feel energized, invigorated, and inspired. I'm Jennifer Weissmann. Today we are speaking about tolerance, acceptance, and coexistence. Yes, our episode is about religion. We had the opportunity to speak with Rabbi and Dr. Ellie Abadie who left Manhattan after being handpicked to move to the United Arab Emirates and grow a Jewish community to coexist in that Arab world. Very excited for this very special episode of Finding Inspiration. Good morning, Rabbi Abadie Doctor Abadie.  I am so excited to speak with you. I want to start by having you take us through the rainbow of your life. You're living in the United Arab Emirates specifically in Dubai.   Take us back to where the journey started for you. Your parents were Syrian refugees that fled Syria and found themselves in Lebanon. Can you take us back to your life in Lebanon? 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (01:34):

Thank you very much, Jennifer.  Life in Lebanon was nice as a child. Of course, we knew that we were living in an Arab country. Lebanon was a place of refuge for my parents, as you mentioned, and also for many Syrian Jews and also Iraqi Jews that came to Lebanon.   Lebanon at that time was kind of a free country. And very pretty and much very European in style. Lebanon was known as the Switzerland of the Middle East and Beirut as the Paris of the Middle East.  Many people found refuge there and lived peacefully. Many knew were Jews and our neighbors knew that we were Jews. And so we were careful not to flaunt our Judaism in the streets. We did not wear to kipah on the street.  We maintained a kind of low profile, however, very proud of our Judaism.  We lived fine and the government was protective of us. I remember very well as a child in the six-day war, we had to stay at home.  We did not know what was happening but that was the instructions of the government. The Lebanese government did protect the Jewish neighborhood known as Wadi al-Yahoud. I remember vividly, a tank stationed at the entrance of the Jewish neighborhood and a tank at the exit of the Jewish neighborhood.  We had a constant military or police patrol around us.  Our family did not live in the Jewish neighborhood. We lived slightly outside of it. And I remember an incident that happened.  On a Shabbat, I was going with my father and older brother to the synagogue.  My dad was holding my hand.  We were stopped at the entrance by the military police and they asked us for our ID.  My father, who was the Rabbi of the synagogue, told him, look it's a Sabbath and I'm a Jew and I don't carry my wallet. At the moment they heard that he was the Rabbi - they immediately saluted him and told him – please come in sir.  It’s an image that I will always remember.   It was wonderful to see their respect and real protection.   I did feel it was protection.  Of course, many other Jews felt more like they were watching us, but as a child, I felt it was protection.  That the government was making sure Jewish people will not be attacked.  Mind you that Lebanon is a country or was a country let's put it better, was a country with a very, very delicate, political, ethnic, and religious balance. When the French left, they left a constitution in which they assigned the Presidency to a Christian, the Prime Minister to a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the Parliament to a Shite Muslim, the foreign ministry and the interior ministry, to a Druze and divided the ministries into several other - , Christian and Muslim denominations. And this maintained the balance.  But everyone knew that the balance would break.  And Lebanon falls into mayhem. That balance was broken slightly in 1958 before I was born.  The American 6th fleet was requested to come in and maintain peace and order law.  And so the Jews living in Lebanon understood that Lebanon sooner or later will fall because this delicate balance would eventually break. Many of the Christian Lebanese were leaving for a new life. Probably also, they understood that that might happen.  The PLO was expelled from Jordan. In fact, there was a civil war in Jordan, and King Hussein expelled the PLO by force.   So Lebanon was forced by the Arab League to quote “welcome” unquote, the PLO (Yasser Arafat) and his gorillas.   And so they came to Lebanon because no other Arab country will accept them. That was very well known. So Lebanon had no choice, but immediately when you have thousands of people coming in, not just regular people, you talking about gorillas militia as with their machine guns across their body in the streets.  

HOST (Jennifer) 06:19):

An armed militia?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (06:20):

Yes, an armed militia, exactly.  With their weapons, you basically invite chaos and civil war, and instability in the country.

HOST (Jennifer) (06:29):

So at that point, your parents figured it was time to start looking for an alternative place to settle. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (06:37):

Parents and the rest of the Jewish community.  After a six-day war, almost every week, one or two families were leaving.  At its peak, Lebanon had maybe 15,000 Jews by 1967.  There were families leaving everyone understood that one day Lebanon will fall and the Jews will suffer. We saw Yasser Arafat and his militia almost every week, protesting marching in the streets of Lebanon with their uniforms and their AK-45 Kalashnikov guns on their arms, we knew Lebanon was falling fast.   And that was in 1970. 

HOST (Jennifer) (07:24):

Did you feel like Lebanon is home for you at this point? You were, you were how old at this point?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (07:29):

Absolutely.  I was nine years old.

HOST (Jennifer) (07:33):

And Arabic was your first language?  So after your family decided we need to get out --where did your family go?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) 07:40):

So my family, after seeing that my family decided to go to Mexico, but there was one incident that was very important in the decision of my family to leave. We were always hoping one day we would leave, but there was no date in sight.  Until this event took place.  We woke up on a Sunday morning and the picture of my father and the other two rabbis in Lebanon were plastered all over the mosques. And it was in a magazine with an article about the Jews. And the caption under the picture said these are Zionist agents that are helping Jews escape or helping Israel.  And when you have a caption like this, with your picture in a magazine and plastered all over the mosque in an Arab country --  you just became a target.  You could be a killed practically with impunity.  And so immediately, the entire Jewish community was shaken. The Rabbis, including my father, went kind of into hiding until the government promised them protection.  We then understood that it was time to leave sooner rather than later.  My father said I have a job to do. I'm a Rabbi here. He provided kosher food because the person who used to had already left the country and he felt he did not want to leave the community without kosher cheese, kosher wine, and so forth. But my mother on the other hand said, no, we need to leave now.  Otherwise, this is going to be our resting place. 

HOST (Jennifer) (09:20):

Your mom insisted you take the safe passage and leave. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (09:23):

My brother had gone to Mexico and started his life in 1965. My father had three sisters and their family there that went so Mexico was their first choice place to go.   But remember we were refugees in Lebanon. We were never citizens. The country never gave us citizenship because my parents were refugees from Syria. Lebanon has still had a law that if you are a refugee for the next 1000 generations, your children, grandchildren, for the next thousand, they are refugees. They will never get citizenship. And so we were refugees.

HOST (Jennifer) (09:57):

Wow. Not a big, not a big incentive to live there. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (10:01):

We had no place to go. No country would accept refugees because they would have to give us asylum. That means economic and political asylum.  And so no country wanted to do that.  In Mexico we had to force their hands, so to speak. My mother sent that picture of my father with the article to my brother and told him, you go if necessary to the president of the country and you tell him either they, they accept us or we're going to be buried in Lebanon. And so my brother did that and within six months we were able to immigrate to Mexico. And the day on which we found out that we finally were able to leave Lebanon was the Eve of Passover.

HOST (Jennifer) (10:44):

How ironic. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (10:46):

Yes, it was very ironic. And in a sense, very emotional for us because that is the holiday our ancestors were freed from slavery.   And so, for us, it was a, a double celebration that holiday.  We received the news in a telegram. In those days, there were no cell phones or texting.   We received a telegram in which one sentence,  because telegrams used to cost a lot of money per letter.  It said Welcome to Mexico, your papers already.  

HOST (Jennifer) (11:20):

So you moved to Mexico.  But you had big plans for yourself.  Tell me about your next chapter.

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (11:27):

We moved to Mexico. I grew up in Mexico ages 10 to 18. And then when it was time for me to decide what profession I wanted to do.  I had really wanted to be a doctor since age five.  I always was telling my parents, I wanna be a doctor. And so I set my career to become a physician. 

HOST (Jennifer) (11:52):

Which you did. You're a gastroenterologist.

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (11:54):

Yes. Which I did thank God. But it was a long road. I applied to very prestigious schools in Mexico, I was accepted. But, I found out that I need to appear on Shabbat -- on a Saturday to take tests, laboratories, and so forth. And I was not ready to compromise my religious beliefs. And then I found out that there is a Jewish institution in New York called the Yeshiva University where I could become a doctor, keep my Sabbath, eat kosher, be surrounded by Jewish students.  To me, it was an amazing institution. I applied and I was accepted.

HOST (Jennifer) (12:51):

I know you had some language issues when you got to America today.  Today you speak four or five languages?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (12:58):

In Lebanon, I spoke Arabic. And French was the language of Lebanon in school.  We learned Hebrew because we had to read the Torah.  I learned biblical Hebrew, and that's how I learned how to begin speaking Hebrew. So, when I arrived in Mexico, I spoke Arabic, French, and Hebrew.  I learned Spanish in Mexico.  But when I got to the United States is when I really learned English.

HOST (Jennifer) (13:26):

You are a Rabbi and a Gastroenterologist and you were living in Manhattan. I wanna fast forward a number of years. The signing of the Abraham Accords in September of 2020 really changed your life.  The Abraham Accords is a treaty that normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. At this point in your life, you had been to the UAE a few times, you had some relationships.  Please share how you ended up moving to the UAE and how the Abraham Accords led you to your new opportunity.

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (13:58):

I’ve had contacts in the UAE dating back 11 years.  This included government officials, Emirati society, and businessmen.  Whenever they would come to New York I would see them.  Three years ago I came back to the UAE to dedicate a Torah in memory of Sheikh Zayed the founding father of the UAE. In fact, there was a whole documentary made called: Amen-Amen-Amen about this trip and the dedication of the Torah scroll.   I had a meeting with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of Abu Dhabi and the future President of the UAE.  And so I had already my connections with the community and also with the government of the UAE. But I was just visiting. There was no intention to move here or anything like that.

HOST (Jennifer) (14:46):

It was a foreshadow of what was to come. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (14:51):

I was invited to participate by the community.  But there was no intention whatsoever to come and move here. I had my beautiful and large community in New York City.  We were very well established for many years.   But then the Abraham Accords happened and then I got a phone call.  The UAE government wanted to formalize a Jewish community.  And they looking for Rabbi to lead the effort.  

HOST (Jennifer) (15:30):

Did that surprise you, that an Arab country was interested in growing a Jewish community?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (15:36):

It didn't surprise me much because I had known in a sense, the UAE, I had met people here. I had seen their intention.  I had seen what they want.  I felt that they want a kind of renewal.  A commingling of the three ancient religions and cultures: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And that took place in Spain, in the golden century, in the golden era.   And so they kind of wanted to renew that they understood the proximity of Judaism and Islam of Jews and Arabs.   Since I knew the people, I wasn't much surprised my name floated up.  They said we would like you to be the one to grow the Jewish community.  You came from the region, you speak the language, you know the culture, you know the religion.   I was also a professor of medieval history so I'm very familiar with this entire region.  

HOST (Jennifer)(16:33):

What haven’t you done Rabbi?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (16:35):

My name was floated. I thought about it for a few days. And I thought this was a historic crossroad.  It’s history in the making.  I have been called to go there to establish a Jewish community.  This will change the entire view of this region. So I accepted that challenge and I came.

HOST (Jennifer) (16:55):

You left the largest Jewish population in America, which is in New York. And you moved to the smallest Jewish population, which is the UAE. I think there's like a little over 300 Jews there at this point. So my question to you is --  in a few years if you were looking back over the success of the Jewish community developed in the UAE -- what does that look like?  What does a flourishing Jewish community look like to you in this Arab world?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (17:26):

I see a Jewish community well established with all of its institutions, of course.  And with all of its challenges in building a Jewish community, and building its institutions, it gets there. And I would say within three to five years, we probably would have up to 3000 Jews. Maybe more.  The UAE is a place in which we could live as Jews freely.  I have not felt any antisemitic incident in the 14 months that I have been here.  We have the full support of the UAE government and of society.  And many Jews are running away from persecution all over the world now.  Believe it or not Europe, even in the United States, there is no day that there isn't an antisemitic incident.  It could be a very minor one, but it exists. Not all of them are reported either.  In the UAE there are many new opportunities for business here. It's a tax haven, a beautiful city, a clean city, a modern city.   All that we want and need can be found here. And so that's why I believe that the Jewish community will grow significantly.

HOST (Jennifer) (18:30):

And you see this as an outpost to Israel, perhaps?  In terms of the growth of Jews moving there and growing their families and so forth. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie) (18:40):

Absolutely.  It is definitely a place for people who thinks that Israel is not yet their final destination and they want to get closer, physically it to it, so to speak.  We already have lots of Israelis moving here, believe it or not. 

HOST (Jennifer) (18:56):

I've been to Dubai. And I can't believe the flights are so full.  I want to talk about the government’s support.  I know you had an opportunity to meet the Crown Prince.  You shared with him the Torah, and I think you even have a shared past in Lebanon. What it was like to show the crown prince of the UAE, the Torah? 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (19:23):

So it was definitely a moving moment.  I spoke with him in Arabic as I speak with all the Emirates here, but of course, I have a Middle Eastern Levant accent of Arabic, which is slightly different than the Gulf accent. So immediately he identified the accent and he told me I see, you must be Lebanese, correct? I said, yes, absolutely. He says, oh, wonderful. He says, when I was a child, we used to summer in Lebanon, even until today, we still have our properties and residences in Lebanon. They used to summer in the same town in the mountain during the same years that I was living there. 

HOST (Jennifer) (20:06):

Perhaps you, you ran into him at the ice cream store.

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (20:08):

Absolutely.  We did reminisce about the ice cream store, the movie theater, the arcades that were there. We are pretty much are of the same age.  It was an interesting moment to connect that way and not only in the religious ceremony.  And of course, he was incredibly impressed by Torah. And I explain to him what it is in it.   Crown Prince said I'm so happy to see what really kept the Jewish people united for all these thousands of years.

HOST (Jennifer) (20:41):

I feel so optimistic for the future of the Jews in the United Arab Emirates.   And a few years ago, I don't think anybody could say that or even think of it. 

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (20:48):

Correct. The interesting and very beautiful part of this is story is that it’s not isolated to the UAE.  It’s spreading all over the region.  All because of the Abraham Accords.  Openness has already spread to Oman, Bahrain, Morocco. 

HOST (Jennifer) (21:03):

How about Saudi Arabia? Is that next?

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (21:05):

If not immediately, it’s definitely in the near future. And so it's going to change - hopefully, the entire region – and maybe the entire world. And that's one of the reasons that I decided to take this challenge. I believe history is changing.  We are making a turning point.  I felt it's important if I got that call, it must be a kind of divine intervention for me to take part in history.

HOST (Jennifer) (21:33):

Rabbi/Doctor Abadie, you have come full circle back to the Middle East.  We wish you every success and look forward to hearing more stories about the rapid growth of the Jewish population in the Arab world.  And I really thank you so much for your time.

GUEST (Rabbi Abadie)  (21:52):

Thank you. It was my pleasure.

HOST (Jennifer) (21:57):

Thank you for joining us this week on Finding Inspiration. Hey, I would appreciate it if you would click on that subscribe button and share this podcast with a friend.  See you week I'm Jennifer Weissmann.