(Photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
During one of my trips to Israel, I was invited on a radio show to discuss the Jewish community in Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, a republic inside Russia. You may be surprised, but the last name of my interlocutor was also Nalchik! He spoke vividly and figuratively about the life of the Circassians in Israel. The conversation turned out to be interesting and unexpected. Getting to know the life of the Circassians allowed me to draw a conclusion about their loyalty to the traditions and customs of their ancestors—and understanding that it was this loyalty that gave them the strength, like the Mountain Jews, to endure the trials that befell them during their Exodus. It was then that I decided to publish the book Circassians in Israel.
Together with journalist M. M. Khafitse, we carefully collected material about a unique community in the Middle East, one that has preserved its cultural heritage, avoided assimilation, and developed a model of civilized relations between the diaspora and the homeland.
In the aftermath of the Russian conquest of the northern Caucasus in 1864, most Circassians found themselves far from the land of their ancestors, with some of them settling in the land of Israel. The fate of this diaspora in Israel is somewhat reminiscent of the fate of my Mountain Jewish people, who have lived in Kabardino-Balkaria for about two hundred years.
In the 1990s, following the perestroika period, a thread of living connection was stretched: Circassians of Israel began to visit Nalchik. They visited the Jewish center ‘Tovushi’, some even felt that they were ready to make «aliyah in reverse» — and after the collapse of the USSR, there was an increased desire of many Israeli Circassians to return to their historical homeland.
I met some of these brave ones while in Israel. Arriving on their ancestral lands in the former USSR, they hurried to buy houses for themselves — but after the new arrivals were simply robbed, they hastily returned back to Israel.
During this troubled time, one of the girls, a Kabardian, married a Circassian: this couple also found their destiny in Israel. I talked with the mother of the bride, who was at the wedding and told many interesting things about the young family building a new life.
The Circassians of Israel live mainly in three settlements: Kfar Kama and Reihania are in the Galilee, and Abu Ghosh on the road to Jerusalem. In total, about 5,000 Circassians live in the Holy Land — descendants of two sub-ethnic groups, Shapsugs and Abadzekhs. Their languages are different, but they understand each other and recognize themselves as part of a single ethnicity.
A group of Circassian language teachers from the Israeli villages of Kfar Kama and Reihania visited Kabardino-Balkaria. Intrigued by the idea of highlighting the unique Circassian community within the historical Jewish homeland, they sought to bring this narrative to life. No sooner said than done: the Tovushi Jewish Culture Center turned to the Embassy of the State of Israel and the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) for help.
The future authors were provided with relevant books, magazine articles in Hebrew and English. Teachers from Israel, who taught the history of Israel to Jewish students at the state school in Nalchik, helped translate articles about Israeli Circassians. The material was rich!
The new collection examines the historical, socio-economic, political and cultural aspects of the life of the Circassian diaspora, which not only managed to preserve its spiritual heritage, but also avoided assimilation.
Circassian school children in Israel learn four languages: Adyghe, Hebrew, English, and Arabic. They do not know their original alphabet of 64 letters, so they have been using the Cyrillic alphabet since the 19th century.
Israeli Circassians, as Israeli scholar Chen Bram writes, highly value their position in democratic Israel. They do not feel themselves to be a «minority» — and step by step they are developing and applying in practice a model of developing relations between the diaspora and their motherland in the North Caucasus.
The book talks about another expressive fact. Circassians living in the territory of Israel were initially exempt from the military draft. In 1957, the Council of Elders of the Circassian People asked the government of the country to allow Circassian young men to serve in the IDF on a general basis. Such permission was received, and they became subject to military service — if the man is not married and does not have a child. At the same time, Circassian women are not subject to conscription — unlike Israeli Jewish women.
Many Circassians have become IDF officers. Circassians serve in all units of the Israel Defense Forces. Many high-ranking officers have emerged from their ranks, and they have proven their loyalty to the Jewish state on the battlefield. A Circassian general was recently appointed as the head of the Northern District of the Israel Police.
Translated
by Sergey Kadinsky
Translator’s Note: Among the non-Jewish ethno-religious groups in Israel, the Druze and Bedouin are famous for their patriotism and good relations with the Jewish population. Israeli Circassians are a much smaller group, but no less patriotic. They are Muslim, but not Arab. Their history is rooted in a republic within Russia that is also the historic home of the Mountain Jews, also known as Juhuro. Their common geography, history, language, and recipes, were shared in Nalchik and in Israel as well.
Svetlana Danilova is a leading historian in this Jewish community. The purpose of this translation is to introduce English-speaking readers to this little-known community.
Svetlana Danilova