For as long as anybody can remember, Jewish Jamaicans have never had a real set of the Four Species, otherwise known as a lulav and etrog, during Sukkot. The island has few date palms and no willows, let alone no etrogs and a strict import policy when it comes to produce. Despite holding on to a vestige of the Sukkot necessities, when it came to the real thing, the community of some 200 has always done without.
Until this year.
Special Delivery Gives Jamaicans First-Ever Opportunity to Fulfill Sukkot Mitzvah
For as long as anybody can remember, Jewish Jamaicans have never had a real set of the Four Species, otherwise known as a lulav and etrog, during Sukkot. The island has few date palms and no willows, let alone no etrogs and a strict import policy when it comes to produce. Despite holding on to a vestige of the Sukkot necessities, when it came to the real thing, the community of some 200 has always done without.
Until this year.
Thanks to Alon Gildoni, a 23-year-old Jewish Agency volunteer stationed in Jamaica, and some high-level negotiations between Chabad-Lubavitch officials and the country’s agriculture ministry, the island’s Jewish community was able – for the first time in modern history – to celebrate Sukkot with a kosher lulav and etrog.
“It was a miracle of sorts,” Gildoni — who arrived in November to strengthen the Jewish community — said of the Sept. 26 delivery, which saw an unprecedented grant of a special agricultural import permit the day of the Four Species’ arrival, followed by an 11th hour human courier from Miami.
When all was said and done, the precious cargo came just in time for the start of the week-long holiday.
