Rabbi Michael (Moshe) Salita
Founder & CEO, The World Kanaani Organization
Affiliated branch of the Salita Foundation (New York), 501(c)(3)
Sometimes a story begins long before we notice it. Mine started four years ago, when I was living in Brooklyn and, after many years without animals, suddenly felt a deep loneliness. I decided to bring a cat into my home — the Scottish fold kitten I named Shpiegel. In my childhood in Odesa, I also had a cat named Shpiegel, and the name carried warmth, memory, and something deeply mine.
A year later, I found a companion for him — Murka, a sweet Scottish girl. Our home became livelier, warmer, fuller. And then, three years after that, during my rabbinical studies at the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute under Rabbi Steven Blane, we had a class called “Blessing of the Animals.” That class changed everything.
Right during the lesson, I suddenly asked myself:
“If there are Scottish cats, British cats, American cats — is there such a thing as a Jewish, an Israeli cat?”
I typed a simple question into Google — and one name appeared: Kanaani.
That moment stayed with me. I felt that something was asking to be found. But locating a Kanaani cat turned out to be nearly impossible. The breed existed on the internet — Wikipedia, scattered articles, historical notes — but no active breeders, no living lines, no confirmed cats anywhere in the world. Only silence. Only absence. Only a name and a memory.
It took almost a full year of searching before the miracle finally happened.
Through friends of my brother, boxing promoter Dmitriy Salita, I met Evgeniy Ryvkin, and through him — his friend Gleb, who connected me with a woman in Israel: Ludmila Vlasova.
She had three Kanaani cats — descendants of a small line that survived only because of chance, compassion, and war.
Their story deserves its own book.
During the October 7 war in Israel, Ludmila helped an Israeli woman from the north — a breeder of Kanaani cats who had to evacuate to a government-funded hotel where animals weren’t allowed. With nowhere to place her cats, she entrusted the remaining kittens to Ludmila. Time passed. They grew. They became adults — Haifa, Arbuz, and later Laila, daughter of Haifa.
Ludmila gifted all three to me.
And with that gift came a mission.
Today these three — Haifa, Arbuz, and Laila — live with me in Brooklyn. I see it as a blessing and as a sacred responsibility. A breed born in Jerusalem in the 1990s, descended from the ancient Felis lybica, now stands on the edge of extinction. Three cats may be all that’s left of a clean, traceable line.
And so, with gratitude, I accepted the task that this moment placed before me:
to revive, document, and protect the Kanaani breed for future generations.
The support I have received along the way has been extraordinary.
The Association of Rare Breeds of Cats (ARBC) under Dr. Anna Kalinichenko was the first to officially issue pedigrees for my Kanaani cats.
Then Pedigree Club UK registered the breed as well.
Then Feline Alliance of Ukraine (FAU) — under the leadership of Natalia and Aleksandr Melnikov — recognized my cats and registered their pedigrees through an affiliated World Cat Federation (WCF) club.
And finally — the historic moment:
my Kanaani cats were officially registered with WCF, reactivating the breed in WCF after nearly 20 years of silence.
I also deeply thank Angelina Koltsova, an international WCF Ring Judge with more than ten years of experience, who told me with complete confidence after seeing photos and videos:
“Congratulations. You have pure Kanaani. This is a treasure.”
I am grateful as well to the TICA Genetics Committee — Dr. Adriana Kajon, Ph.D., and Lorraine Shelton — for their guidance and kindness in this ongoing process.
And of course, to Ludmila Vlasova, without whom this entire story would never have existed.
Today the World Kanaani Organization, the affiliated branch of the Salita Foundation, is being built with one purpose:
to ensure that the Kanaani breed does not disappear from the world.
We will research, document, create archives and a digital library, support ethical breeders, collaborate with non-profits and scientific institutions, and build an international network of people who care.
This mission is rooted in something ancient and simple.
In the Book of Genesis, God tells Adam:
“Here is the Garden, and all that lives within it. Take care of it — for there is no one else who will.”
The Kanaani was born on the land of Israel.
It is a small piece of that Garden.
And now it is in our hands.
May we be worthy of this responsibility.
May kindness guide us.
May we save what was almost lost.
⸻
With gratitude and hope,
Rabbi Michael (Moshe) Salita
Founder & CEO, The World Kanaani Organization
Affiliated Branch of the Salita Foundation (New York)
501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization