Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Glimpse Into Circassian Culture

The Circassian Heritage Center in Kfar Kama and the smaller Circassian Museum, in Rehaniya, offer a window onto the community’s singular material culture.

Image by Oren Kessler

“It’s not exactly the Israel Museum or the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem — it’s modest and simple,” said Khoon Shawki, proprietor of the Circassian Museum and of Rehaniya’s Sausruka restaurant. “After viewing the displays, guests are invited into my home, where we complete the experience with some Circassian home cooking — a light snack or full meal, whichever they prefer.”

Particularly striking in both museums are the clothing displays. Men traditionally wore felt cloaks with wide, often short sleeves for added flexibility during combat (the Cossacks even adopted the coat in the 19th century, calling it a Cherkeska). A tall sheepskin cap, along with a sword and dagger, completed the ensemble.

Women wore an elegant silk or velvet dress topped with a high-domed hat, often with a transparent white veil leading down from the crown. Supposedly, 19th-century Ottoman sultans prized Circassian women for their looks, and P.T. Barnum even included (fake) “Circassian beauties” in his traveling show.

Dance is central to Circassian culture, with at least 12 distinct forms, including courting, dagger and satirical dances. Males often dance energetically and fast, while women are expected to move more slowly, with grace and finesse.

The annual three-day Circassian Festival — held in both Kfar Kama and Rehaniya — focuses on the museums themselves. The highlights of this year’s event, held in July, included performances by Al-Jeel, a dance troupe from Jordan that arrived with no fewer than 57 members in full regalia.

At Kfar Kama’s Cherkessia restaurant and Rehaniya’s Sausruka, one can sample local staples such as Haliva (fried triangular pasties filled with potato or cottage cheese), as well as Circassian cheese, a mild, popular variety that can be found even in the supermarkets of Tel Aviv.

But “that’s not the real stuff,” Shawki warns. “To make it properly, you have to follow my great-great-grandmother’s recipe from the Caucasus.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.