When I was studying for the rabbinate at Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, during a class on Blessings of the Animals with Rabbi Steven Blane, I suddenly found myself asking a very simple question.

And perhaps the context of that conversation was not accidental. Rabbi Steven Blane is considered the founder of the Jewish Universalism movement — the idea that in the Messianic era, the nations of the world will draw closer to Torah and Jewish spiritual tradition. This idea is connected to the prophecies of the Tanakh, especially the prophet Isaiah, who spoke of a time when the nations would seek spiritual teaching coming forth from Zion. Because of that, conversations about animals, spirituality, and the place of the living world within Jewish tradition were a natural part of that atmosphere.

At some point, I began thinking about how different nations and cultures are reflected even in animal breeds. There are British cats. There is the Russian Blue. There is the American Shorthair. Abyssinian cats are associated with Ethiopia. Persian cats are associated with Iran. Siamese cats are associated with Thailand. Nearly every country or culture seems to have a well-known cat breed connected to it.

And then I asked myself: does Israel have a cat breed of its own? Is there a cat connected to Jewish culture, to Israel, to Jerusalem?

That simple question changed everything.

At first, I thought it was merely an unusual feline curiosity. But the deeper I went into the story, the more I realized that this was about something much bigger. It was the story of an almost forgotten Israeli breed that had nearly disappeared from history — and that perhaps could still be brought back.

The story of the Kanaani feels almost like a modern Midrash.

The breed was created by Doris Pollatschek — an artist, architect, and writer........

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