Reviving the Kanaani: FAU, WCF and the Salita Foundation Bring Israel’s Native Cat Breed Back to the World
There are stories that do not begin in a single moment but rather return after many years, carrying with them traces of history, memory and quiet resilience, and the story of the Kanaani — the only recognized cat breed to originate in Israel and shaped in Jerusalem — belongs precisely to this category, because after nearly two decades of disappearance from international registries and silence in the global feline community, this rare and culturally significant breed has now been formally restored to the World Cat Federation (WCF), marking an important milestone for those who believe that living heritage, especially one rooted in the land of Israel, deserves to be preserved with dignity and respect.
The path that led to the return of the Kanaani to the official sphere began not in the United States and not even in its homeland, but through the efforts of several organizations and individuals who treated the preservation of the breed as a matter of responsibility rather than convenience. The first modern registrations were issued by ARBC — the Association of Rare Breeds of Cats — through the expertise of Dr. Anna Kalinichenko, who prepared the initial pedigrees for my foundational cats from Israel. Later, Pedigree Club UK, an independent British registry, added the breed to its records, acknowledging the legitimacy of its lineage without imposing additional barriers. Finally, the essential step took place when the Feline Alliance of Ukraine (FAU), an official WCF-affiliated club, registered my Kanaani cats directly within the WCF system, meaning that after almost twenty years of absence, the breed is once again recognized in one of the world’s major international federations.
My involvement in this work began with a simple but deeply personal question that emerged four years ago, when my first cat — a Scottish male named Spiegel — arrived in my home as a four-month-old kitten. Until that moment I had never thought about the possibility that a distinctively Jewish cat breed might exist, and yet this question eventually led me to Israel, where I met Lyudmila Vlasova, whom I now warmly call “Mama Lyuda,” and who gifted me Haifa and Arbuz, my foundational Kanaani cats born in Jerusalem. That meeting became the starting point of a journey I had never expected to undertake: as a rabbi and a student of Animal Chaplaincy, I eventually came to understand that preserving this rare breed is not simply a matter of breeding, but rather an act of cultural guardianship, a way of honoring Jewish memory and strengthening the connection between past and future.
To support this work, I established the Salita Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission includes preserving and documenting the breed, conducting research, building collaboration with international feline and humanitarian institutions, preparing future publications and, in time, gifting Kanaani kittens to Holocaust Survivors, to the children and grandchildren of Survivors, and to the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jews. The idea is not only to protect a rare animal lineage but also to create a living bridge connecting individuals and generations through a symbol that carries the spirit of the land of Israel. As the biblical command to Adam teaches — that the garden and all living beings within it must be protected because no one else will — I came to realize that in our generation there is no one else standing between the Kanaani and its disappearance, and therefore this responsibility has, in a very real sense, fallen to me.
The revival of the breed became possible thanks to the cooperation of many people and organizations, each contributing in their own essential way. I remain profoundly grateful to Alexander and Natali Melnikov of Feline Alliance of Ukraine, who issued the official WCF pedigrees and registered me as a WCF Kanaani breeder; to Dr. Anna Kalinichenko of ARBC for the first contemporary pedigrees; to Pedigree Club UK for adding the breed to the British registry; to Doris H. Reiter and Ms. Borowski of the WCF team in Germany for their guidance; and to Lorraine Shelton and Dr. Adriana Kajon of the TICA Genetics Committee for their expert advice and support during the ongoing TICA process. The independent confirmations of multiple registries, each working separately, demonstrate a consensus that the lineage is pure and that the breed merits preservation.
There are, however, individuals whose personal support shaped this path in ways that cannot be measured administratively. I am grateful to Lyudmila Vlasova in Israel, whose generosity made it possible for me to begin this mission at all; to Evgeny Ryvkin and his friend Gleb, who connected me with her; and to my brother Dmitriy Salita, world boxing champion and member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, whose friends opened doors and provided help at crucial moments. I also thank Rabbi Steven Blane, founder of JSLI, whose course “Blessing of the Animals” gave spiritual direction to this journey; Rabbi Zalman Liberov and his wife from Chabad Flatbush for their blessing and encouragement; Rabbi Natan Arister, both rabbi and physician at Maimonides Hospital, whose presence felt symbolically meaningful; Rabbi Mark Zarakh and rabbanit Natalia Shiryaeva for their support; and Sarah Bowen of Compassion Consortium for her thoughtful guidance. And of course, none of this would have happened without Spiegel — that small, coffee-colored Scottish kitten whose arrival led me to ask the question that uncovered an entire forgotten piece of Jewish heritage.
With WCF recognition already complete and the TICA process underway with positive momentum, the task ahead is one of preservation rather than discovery. The Kanaani must not vanish again. It should be studied carefully, documented systematically and protected in a way that allows it to flourish in future generations. The Salita Foundation intends to continue this mission through research, cultural projects, collaboration with Jewish and non-Jewish organizations worldwide and partnerships with institutions that preserve living heritage. The ultimate goal is to ensure that this rare Jerusalem-born breed becomes a symbol of continuity, compassion and memory — a small yet meaningful reminder of the deep ties between people, land and the living beings who share our world.
This work is, in the end, not only about a cat breed being restored to official registries. It is about preserving a fragment of Jewish cultural memory that nearly disappeared. It is about honoring the connection between generations and strengthening the bridge between Israel, Ukraine, the United States, Germany and the global community through a mission that is at once spiritual, cultural and humane. And it is about remembering that the task of protecting the living world — from the grandest trees to the smallest creatures — remains one of the sacred responsibilities entrusted to us.
