In this episode of the “Our Middle East” podcast, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs President Dan Diker welcomes Rabbi Ben de Toledo, the United Arab Emirates’ official rabbi of Abu Dhabi. Rabbi Toledo leads the Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) synagogue, the first “purpose-built” Jewish house of worship in the Arab Gulf region in the past 100 years.
The synagogue is sponsored and funded by the Emirati government’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under the mandate and blessing of its leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who has set an ideal of religious tolerance in the UAE, whose residents include 200 nationalities and ethnicities. In 2019, the UAE’s “year of tolerance” was devoted to embracing and displaying shared monotheistic, Abrahamic values. The synagogue is part of a complex of the “Abrahamic Family House” that also includes a mosque and a church. The UAE puts faith-based diplomacy into practice with the houses of worship doing everything from hosting common events in a shared garden to publishing papers that encourage understanding and tolerance.
