The log4j2.xml was placed in a "Folder" which in eclipse terms is "not on classpath".
Changing META-INF to be a "source folder" solved the problem.
In addition, the log4j2.xml file was not defined properly.
These are the modifications needed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration name="PRODUCTION" status="OFF">
<appenders>
<RollingFile name="MyFileAppender"
fileName="../Logs/app.log"
filePattern="../Logs/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %C{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<OnStartupTriggeringPolicy />
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy interval="6" modulate="true"/>
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
</RollingFile>
</appenders>
<loggers>
<root level="error">
<appender-ref ref="MyFileAppender"/>
</root>
<logger name="com.foo" level="info" additivity="false">
<appender-ref ref="MyFileAppender"/>
</logger>
</loggers>
</configuration>
Still couldn't make the org.hibernate logger to be redirected to my logs, but at least I got the logger to work