New York University chaplain Rabbi Yehuda Sarna has been tapped to be the first chief rabbi of the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates, it was announced by the international affairs director for the Anti-Defamation League. The agreement calls for Rabbi Sarna to remain at NYU and travel to the UAE four times annually in an unpaid capacity. Sarna’s position will consist of “pursuing interfaith dialogue in the region, and building the office of the chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of the Emirates (JCE).

“Currently, the JCE meets in an unmarked home in a residential location in Dubai so as to attract little attention in this predominantly Muslim country,” reported Religion News Service. “It draws about 200 Jews, many of them business people from all over the world, who have flocked to the UAE to take part in its growing economic power as it shifts from a reliance on oil and trade to technology and artificial intelligence.”