By: John M. Black

A community of non-Arab Muslims from southern Russia fled persecution two centuries ago and settled in Israel

Among the diverse mosaic of ethnic and religious minorities in Israel is a small community of non-Arab Muslims from southern Russia known as Circassians, who fled persecution in their native homeland two centuries ago and settled in the Galilee. Much like the Armenian remnant living in Israel, they consider themselves to be victims of an historic genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign, and their cry for recognition is now threatening to disrupt next year’s Winter Olympics.

The Circassians in Israel are part of a larger dispersed community which numbers nearly five million worldwide. Members of the community are starting to make noise over the XXII Winter Olympics slated to be held in Sochi, Russia in February 2014. Sochi is regarded by the Circassians as the traditional capital city of their ancient homeland nestled in the Caucasus region, which was forcibly and bloodily subjugated by Russia and splintered into four different federated republics.

The Circassians view the upcoming winter games as extraordinarily offensive because they are being held in the location where Russians massacred scores of Circassians in the 1860s. Adding insult to injury, the 2014 Winter Olympics will fall on the 150^th anniversary of what they claim was a Russian genocide campaign against the Circassian people.

Moreover, the desecration of Circassian graves is occurring on a grand scale as the infrastructure is being prepared to accommodate the athletes and spectators for the winter games. Iyad Youghar, head of the International Circassian Council, recently pleaded that “we want athletes to know that if they compete here they will be skiing on the bones of our relatives.”

In May 2011, the state of Georgia became the first nation to officially recognize Russia’s actions towards the Circassians as genocide. The first major treatment of the tragic episode also was recently published in March 2013 and entitled The Circassian Genocide, authored by Walter Richmond, director of the Russian Studies Program at Occidental College, Los Angeles.

The Circassians are a North Caucasian ethnic people group with a distinct culture and language, called Adyghe, who were forcibly removed from their homeland in the 19^th century during Russia’s conquest of the Caucasus. The expansion campaign involved the Russian Empire, largely consisting of Orthodox Christians, killing and uprooting native Muslim populations along fringes of the Ottoman Empire.

Some estimate that upwards of 1.5 million Circassians were killed through war and genocide, while hundreds of thousands more died during the expulsion and relocation phase. The Ottomans, recognizing them as skillful and experienced warriors who had mastered the use of weapons while riding horseback, assimilated and settled the survivors in frontier towns and villages to strengthen the borders of the Ottoman Empire.

The evidence of Circassians living in the northwest Caucasus region dates back thousands of years. In fact, modern anthropologists believe the Circassian people occupied the region since the Stone Age, with traces discovered as early as 8000 BC. They are believed to have organized into the first Circassian kingdom in 400 BC but were too disorganized to remain intact in the face of periodic raids by the Monguls, Pechenegs, Huns and Khazars.

Today, an estimated four million Circassians live in a diaspora which can be found in significant numbers in the United States, Germany, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Libya, with the largest concentration of roughly three million located in Turkey. An additional one million are still living in their homeland, which is now a part of southwestern Russia.

Meanwhile a small band made their way to Israel, where some four thousand live today in two communities. In 1876 the Circassian newcomers established the settlement of Kfar Kama, just to the east of Mount Tabor, and Rehaniya was planted in 1873 near the Lebanon border. Both towns were founded just prior to the first major wave of Jewish aliyah from southern Russia in 1881.

Because both the Circassians and many of the early Jewish settlers in the late 19^th century shared the Russian language, relations between them were good. In fact, during the British Mandate period, Circassians – who are Sunni Muslims – aided illegal Jewish immigration from Lebanon and fought in the 1948 War of Independence alongside the Jews.

According to Zuhair Thawcho, director of the Circassian heritage museum in Kfar Kama, the Circassians have had positive relations with the Jewish people for some time. In August of 1942, for instance, Circassians in Besleney, Russia hid 32 Jewish children from the invading German army at great risk to their own lives.

One of those rescued Jewish children is Rosa Bergman, who today lives in an elderly hostel in Israel. She was born in 1941 to Jewish parents in the Circassian region of what is today a Russian federated republic known as Kabardino-Balkaria. Fearing the Nazis, her parents gave her to a Circassian family who raised her until she was 16 years of age. She eventually immigrated to Israel in 2004.

Today, Circassians are well integrated into Israeli society, with nearly all males completing the Israeli mandatory military service. Many go on to jobs in the various Israeli security services, such as the Border Police, IDF, police and prison service. They maintain their identity through preservation of their language and culture. In addition to learning their mother tongue, they also learn Hebrew, Arabic and English so they can graduate high school with multilingual skills.

Owing in part to Ottoman influence, many Circassians in Israel are Sunni Muslims, but this was not always the case. In the 5^th century AD, the Byzantines sent missionaries from Greece to convert the Circassians from their pagan ways. Over time, many converted to orthodox Christianity and became allied with the Byzantine Empire. Circassians living in the present-day Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, the far eastern edge of historical Circassia, remain Orthodox Christians. But with the Islamic Conquest and then Ottoman expansion, most were to become Muslims.

Over the course of the past decade Circassian nationalism has been on the rise, especially among the younger generation. Many are wanting to see an independent state set up in the region of historical Circassia prior to Russian conquest. Among their other objectives is to see wider official recognition of the Russian genocide perpetrated against Circassians and the repatriation of Circassian peoples back to their homeland.

To counter Russia’s low immigration policy for Circassians, a number of organizations have been created to encourage diaspora Circassians to return ‘home,’ such as the International Circassian Association. In addition, Adygea, a federated republic of Russia, attempted in August 2009 to unilaterally boost the immigration quota for Circassians from Russia’s limit of 50 to 1,400.

Though the XXII Winter Olympic Games will lack the Circassian flag, the more than five million Circassians worldwide will continue to be proud of their ethnic heritage and culture, and will be increasingly vocal about the atrocities committed against them. The spotlight on the upcoming Sochi games may finally give them a chance to be heard.

Appeared first in the Jerusalem Post magazine, Christian Edition, released in June.