Hundreds of friends and relatives on Tuesday celebrated in Crown Heights the engagement of United Arab Emirates Chief Rabbi Levi Duchman to Lea Hadad.

Hadad is the daughter of Rabbi Menachem Hadad, chief rabbi of Brussels, Belgium.

Rabbi Duchman serves as rabbi and emissary in Dubai, UAE, where he has lived since 2014. His first position as rabbi was when he was 21 and began serving as emissary at Chabad of Casablanca, Morocco.

Four years after Chabad-Lubavitch began operating in the UAE, Rabbi Duchman moved to that country and began helping local Jews with Jewish matters. In 2019, he began serving officially as the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to the UAE.

Two weeks ago, Rabbi Duchman was invited by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to speak in the name of the Jewish community and the Jewish world at the royal palace, following the death of the UAE's previous president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, at the age of 73.