Who are the Circassians?

In March, I visited Kfar Kama in the Jezreel Valley. Its residents are a people group I'd never heard of before. Have you ever heard of the Circassians?

The Circassians are from the northwest Caucasus Region. This Muslim people group suffered a genocide at the hands of Russia in the early 19th century and were exiled to Turkey and the Middle East.

Today, there are 10 million Circassians in the world. Though they are far from their homeland, their culture and language remain. Since I am learning Hebrew, I was fascinated to learn about their language, which is pictorial, using onomatopoeia, words that look like they sound, like "Meow". Like Hebrew, each letter has a meaning. Their language doesn't have gender; there isn't even a word for "he" or "she". They won't say, "My husband" or "my wife", because no one belongs to anyone. Because there are not enough consonants to complete the language, words have multiple meanings. For this, and many other reasons, context is key.

While in Kfar Kama, I got to tour the ancient town, see artifacts, and watch a demonstration of the cultural dances. It was so cool!

Today you get to experience this with me!

Can you see the basalt in the building materials? What a beautiful town!

Kfar Kama known as one of the cleanest cities in the world. But they don't have cleaning crew, because everyone in the town cleans the town.

This symbol on the building is from the Circassian flag.

Peek-a-boo!

Traditional clothes and artifacts:

Now for the dancing! It was so beautiful. The girl looked like she was floating. My favorite dance was the one about the eagle. 

The story goes that there was a guy who couldn't dance well, so he intentionally made up funny dances imitating different animals that made everyone laugh. And then one day he and his wife did a dance like a pair of eagles, and no one laughed. It was so beautiful that they said, "We aren't going to call this one 'the eagle dance', we are going to name it after you."

So fun!

The Golan: Ancient Katzrin (Part 1 of 4)

The Golan Heights is a place of incredible Israel history, filled with conquests, epic battles, and important lessons. 

"Golan" is mentioned in Deuteronomy 4:43, Joshua 20:8, and 1 Chronicles 6:71 as a city of refuge in Bashan. Throughout Biblical times, the Golan was a focus of a power struggle between the Israelites and the ancient Arameans from near Damascus.

King Ahab of Israel defeated Ben Hadad I of Damascus near Afik (pictured above) and years later, Elisha prophesied the victory of King Jehoash of Israel over Ben Hadad III of Damascus.

Jewish exiles from the Babylonia settled here in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, and during the inter-Testamental period, Judah Maccabee and his brothers came to the aid of Jewish settlements there (above info found here). 

By 1st century AD, Gamla was the capital of the Golan, and fell as the last Jewish stronghold to resist the Romans in 67 AD.

Despite the fall of Gamla, Jewish settlement continued to grow in the Golan, and during the Byzantine Era (4th-7th centuries AD), Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights reached its peak. During that time, 27 different towns (with synagogues) were built up along the area. And after the Six Day War in 1967, excavation began. Over the next few weeks, we'll look at a series of locations throughout the Golan that tell part of its incredible story.

First of all, the meaning of the Talmudic Era. The Talmud is a set of teachings and commentaries on the Torah that form the basis for Jewish law. It was written during the time of the Byzantine Era, hence the name

In the city of Katzrin is lies the ancient Talmudic village of Katzrin. It's a really cool interactive park where people can go, learn about things like the olive press, wine press, and threshing grain, while also touring ruins from the Talmudic era. There's a village and the remains of a synagogue!

this isn't the olive press; I didn't get a good picture of it.

I could totally picture Eden from The Chosen smushing grapes in here!

grain sifter

These areas were fun, but I enjoyed most walking through the ruins (of course):

And we got a surprise at the synagogue—a modern day ceremony!

These children were being given their very own copies of the Torah!

the carving of the menorah is interesting here... I'll explain more in a future post.

Walking through the Rabbi's house was also really neat:

can you guess where the refrigerator is?

here it is! keeps out the critters

This was a really cool place. As a BIG fan of HGTV in the States, the house was the most interesting thing to me. What was your favorite part?

Stay tuned for next week—Afik!