The World Kanaani Organization (Affiliated Branch of the Salita Foundation)**
The World Kanaani Organization operates as an affiliated branch of the Salita Foundation, a U.S.–based nonprofit originally founded by internationally known boxing champion and promoter Dmitriy Salita, a member of the New York Boxing Hall of Fame and the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Dimitriy created the foundation to support children and communities through sports and education, helping young people stay safe, inspired, and connected.
Today the foundation continues this legacy in a new direction: caring for living beings who cannot speak for themselves and cultivating compassion across generations.
Under the leadership of Rabbi Moshe (Michael) Salita, the foundation expanded its mission to include the preservation, documentation, and spiritual–cultural protection of the rare Israeli cat breed Kanaani, integrating non-profit work, research, animal chaplaincy, Jewish ethics, and international cooperation.
The World Kanaani Organization was created to safeguard a treasure that stands at the very edge of extinction.
The Kanaani breed was born in Jerusalem in the 1990s through the work of Dorothea Polaczek. Its distant ancestor is Felis lybica — the African Wildcat that has lived on the land of Israel for thousands of years — but it is the Kanaani breed itself that stands today on the verge of disappearing. Not the wild cat, but the modern Kanaani: scattered, undocumented, nearly forgotten, with only a handful of known representatives left in the world. For us, this is not simply a biological issue. It is a matter of culture, memory, identity, and moral responsibility.
We see our work as part of the ancient instruction given to Adam: “Here is the garden, and everything in it — protect it, for no one else will.” The Kanaani was entrusted to us by history, by the land of Israel, and by the fragile chain of human hands that kept this lineage alive. If we do not care for it, no one will. This is our micro-level Noah’s Ark — our small but real obligation to protect life, guided by the belief that “one who saves even one living soul (nefesh), saves a world.”
Our mission is international. The breed was preserved through the joint efforts of people from Israel, Ukraine, the United States, Germany, and the broader global community. Thanks to the work of independent organizations such as ARBC, Pedigree Club UK, and especially Feline Alliance of Ukraine (FAU) — a WCF-affiliated club — the Kanaani breed returned to the official registry of the World Cat Federation (WCF) after nearly twenty years of inactivity. Today, the few surviving Kanaani cats are documented, recognized, and ready for the next stage of preservation and study.
The World Kanaani Organization is building a global research initiative: collecting pedigrees, maintaining databases, archiving historical documents, creating a digital and future physical library and museum, writing articles and books, collaborating with geneticists, scholars, breeders, and cultural organizations, and working toward international standards and cooperation. We apply for grants, support other programs, and plan to give grants to responsible partners engaged in ethical preservation of this breed worldwide.
One of the most meaningful aspects of our mission is the human dimension. We hope to connect this fragile breed with Holocaust Survivors, their children, grandchildren, and with the righteous among the nations who saved Jewish lives. Those who survived extinction can help protect a creature now facing its own. This bond carries deep symbolic power — a testimony of continuity, kindness, memory, and healing across generations. It is an act of chesed, compassion, a living example for children and communities. Through this we hope to engage schools, special-needs programs, autism-support initiatives, synagogues, cultural centers, and animal-welfare organizations who see value in interspecies connection and healing.
This work is not just about preserving a rare cat breed. It is about building bridges, honoring heritage, strengthening kindness, and leaving a legacy for those who come after us. The World Kanaani Organization stands for life, compassion, culture, and responsibility — bringing together Jerusalem, Kyiv, New York, Berlin, and the global community in a shared effort to protect something small, gentle, and precious, so that it may live, and through it, we may become better human beings.