Kadyrov Street in Israeli village

The municipal authorities of Abu-Gosh decided to name one of streets in honor of the late president of Chechnya, Ahmad Kadyrov, who was killed in Grozny in 2004. According to the head of the local Council of Abu-Gosh, Salim Dzhabara, the decision was made after historians proved that many families in Abu-Gosh have Chechen roots.

Relations between local authorities of Abu-Gosh and the government of Chechnya began its development not long ago, but very intensively. In recent time a delegation from Abu-Gosh has visited the governmental residence of Chechnya in Moscow and Grozny. And the delegation from Chechnya has visited Abu-Gosh. The government of Chechnya decided to build in Abu-Gosh a school and the Chechen cultural center, and in its turn Abu-Gosh decided to name one of streets in honor of Ahmad Kadyrov.

At the same time, some Israeli ethnographers think the fact that the residents of Abu-Gosh are offspring of Chechens is a historic misunderstanding. There is no doubt that the residents of Abu-Gosh are future generations of natives from the West Caucasus, however, not of Chechens, but Circassians. Difference is significant: Chechens are Turk peoples, while language of Circassians belongs to the Abkhazo-Adyghean language group. At the same time it is obvious that two peoples are close in their culture and mentality, if not language.

Today there are more than 4000 Cercassians in Israel. All they are descendants of Adygs, who were driven out from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire. They settled in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and so on. Most of Israeli Cercassians live in villages Kfar-Kama, Rehania and Abu-Gosh. Most of them don’t know any dialect of the Adyghean language.

In recent time friendly relations have been established between Jews and Cercassians. Cercassians fought for Israeli independence in the mid of the XXth century.

Petr Luksimon, Israel. Exclusively to VK.