REHANIYA (AFP) — On a sunny afternoon, Shina Shabso was busy making traditional cheese pastries for a wedding on Israel’s border with Lebanon. The celebration in the Circassian village of Rehaniya was a much-needed break from weeks of war.

Known as “halyuj,” the fried semi-circular pastries are a staple of life in this tiny community of Circassians spread across two villages in northern Israel, and are served up to honor guests at a celebration or to comfort those who mourn.

“Preserving traditional food, especially Circassian cheese, is very important because in Israel we are a minority of around 5,000,” said Shabso, who filled them with her own freshly-made cheese, the tradition passed down through families for generations.

“It’s important for the next generation to know where we came from, what people used to eat and how they used to produce it,” said the 32-year-old artisanal cheesemaker who runs Gvinot Shabso (Shabso Cheese) with her husband Itzik.

It is an explanation she often gave tour groups who would visit before Hezbollah began shooting missiles at northern Israel following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.

Like their Jewish and Arab neighbours, the Circassians — Sunni Muslims who serve in the Israel Defense Forces — have had their lives disrupted by the current round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel that began in March, when the Iran-backed terror group resumed its fire on Israel amid the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic.

For now, though, the skies were clear with only a few distant booms echoing over the border some 4.5 kilometers (nearly three miles) away.

‘You’re loyal to your surroundings’

The Circassians are an ethnic group indigenous to the North Caucasus, a mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas, in what is today........

© The Times of Israel