Kanaani Cats Nominated for Brooklyn Certificate of Proclamation
Ahead of American National Cat Day, the Jerusalem-born breed’s Brooklyn revival reaches another milestone after its historic debut in Finland and international record recognition.
Something remarkable has happened to the Kanaani in a very short time.
When I began working to revive this extraordinarily rare Israeli cat breed in America, my goal was simple: I did not want the Kanaani to disappear.
I could not have imagined how quickly its story would travel.
From Jerusalem to Brooklyn. From Brooklyn to Finland. From an international cat show to world-record recognition. From America to Ukraine. And now, as American National Cat Day approaches on October 29, the story is coming home to Brooklyn.
The Kanaani cats and I, as their custodian, have been nominated for recognition at Brooklyn Borough Hall in connection with American National Cat Day. The nomination has been received by the Office of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and is currently under review.
For me, this is about much more than another certificate.
It is about Brooklyn recognizing a remarkable Israeli story that has found a second home in America.
A Jerusalem story
The modern Kanaani was created in Jerusalem in the 1990s by Doris Pollatschek, a German-born Jewish artist who made Israel her home.
Even the breed’s name carries history.
Canaan belongs to the ancient biblical geography and memory of the land that would become the Land of Israel. The modern Kanaani is not a biblical breed, of course. But it was born in Jerusalem, and its name and distinctive natural appearance connect its identity to the landscape and history of the Holy Land.
There is another part of Doris’s story that makes preserving her creation particularly meaningful to me.
Doris Pollatschek was a Holocaust survivor.
As a Jewish child in Germany, she escaped Nazi persecution with her family. Members of her extended family were murdered during the Holocaust.
Doris survived and chose creation.
She became an artist, built a new life and eventually, in Jerusalem, created something that had never existed before: the Kanaani breed.
I think about that often.
I would never compare the fate of an animal breed with the human tragedy of the Holocaust. But I do believe there is something deeply moving about preserving the creative legacy of a survivor.
Doris left something to the world.
I do not want us to lose it.
From Brooklyn to Finland
This summer, something happened that once seemed almost impossible.
On August 8–9, two of my Kanaani cats — Haifa, born in Israel, and her American-born daughter Haya — traveled with me from New York to the World Cat Federation Jubilee Show in Vantaa, Finland.
It was a historic international appearance for the breed.
Haya earned two CACP certificates, received a Best in Show nomination and placed fifth in a WCF kitten ring. Haifa received an Excellent evaluation and earned a CAC championship certificate.
Then something even more remarkable happened.
Following the show, Haifa and Haya reached the No. 1 Kanaani positions in two different WCF Best Cat categories — Haifa among adults and Haya among kittens and juniors.
A mother born in Israel and a daughter born in America had traveled from Brooklyn to Finland and returned the Kanaani to the international stage.
Two record milestones
The Kanaani revival has now become associated with two separate record milestones.
The first concerns the extraordinary rarity of the breed itself.
The second grew out of Finland: two Kanaani cats simultaneously reaching No. 1 positions within separate WCF Best Cat categories following the same international show.
The achievement involving Haifa, Haya and their custodian received recognition from Record Holders Republic, while the achievement was also separately recognized in Ukraine.
Suddenly, the geography of this tiny breed had become surprisingly large.
Israel gave the Kanaani its identity.
America gave its revival a home.
Ukraine became part of its registration, preservation and record story.
Finland gave it an international stage.
The Kanaani remains an Israeli breed. That should never be lost.
But I believe its revival is also becoming a source of pride for America and Ukraine.
Kanaani Diplomacy
That realization led me to formulate what I call the Kanaani Diplomacy Doctrine.
The idea is simple.
A rare animal does not have to become something one country possesses and others admire from a distance. Preservation itself can become a form of international cooperation.
Israel can remain the historic home and country of origin of the Kanaani. America can become a major center of its revival. Ukraine can participate in preservation, registration and recognition. Finland can provide an international stage. Tomorrow, other countries can establish new populations and become custodians of the breed’s future.
I call this preservation instead of possession.
And there is an important paradox at the heart of Kanaani Diplomacy.
My goal is not to keep saying that I work with one of the world’s rarest cat breeds.
My goal is to make that statement obsolete.
The greatest achievement will come when there are enough healthy Kanaani in different countries that nobody can call the breed one of the rarest in the world anymore.
That will mean we succeeded.
From world records to children’s books
There is now another chapter beginning.
I write under the literary name Rav Papa Kanaani, and I am preparing a children’s book series inspired by cats, biblical imagination, the Land of Israel and the long relationship between humans and felines.
Literary agents with experience and connections to major publishing houses have already expressed interest, and I am preparing the manuscript for submission.
The first book is called Adam and the First Cat.
It begins long before there was a Kanaani breed. Long before Jerusalem became a great city. Long before there were even domestic cats.
Science tells us how wildcats gradually came closer to human communities.
My story asks a different question:
What might that first step have felt like?
What if we could imagine the moment when a wild cat first crossed an open threshold and discovered that perhaps a human being did not have to be an enemy?
From Adam and the first cat, the series will eventually travel forward toward Jerusalem and the Kanaani.
It is a children’s story, not a claim that the modern Kanaani existed in biblical times.
But there is a connection I want children to discover: our relationship with animals is ancient, and with that relationship comes responsibility.
And now, Brooklyn
This is why the nomination at Brooklyn Borough Hall means so much to me.
I am proud of Finland.
I am proud of the world-record recognition.
I am proud that Ukraine has become part of this story.
And I will always recognize Jerusalem as the birthplace of the Kanaani.
But I am also proud that the revival is happening here, in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn understands what it means to carry something precious across an ocean.
People have arrived here from almost every corner of the earth carrying languages, traditions, memories and identities. They preserved them — and, at the same time, made them part of the American story.
In its own small way, that is what is happening with the Kanaani.
The breed came to America from Israel needing a future.
Brooklyn gave its revival a home.
As American National Cat Day approaches on October 29, I hope the attention surrounding the nomination will do something even more important than recognize what has already happened.
I hope it will help people discover the Kanaani.
Because the greatest record has not yet been set.
The greatest record will be the day when this breed is no longer rare enough to qualify for one.
Born in Jerusalem.
Born from a survivor’s vision.
Revived in America.
A source of pride for America and Ukraine.
Making history in Finland.
One rare breed. Four nations. One shared future.
That is Kanaani Diplomacy.
Rabbi Mikhail Salita, writing as Rav Papa Kanaani, is a Brooklyn-based rabbi, animal chaplain and custodian of the Kanaani breed in the United States. He leads the American Kanaani revival effort and is the originator of the Kanaani Diplomacy Doctrine.
