For Brooklyn shoppers seeking fall's most coveted heirloom fruit, provenance and pedigree are paramount. Pesticides, not so much.
For Crown Heights Jews, Sukkos Has an Italian Twist
For Brooklyn shoppers seeking fall’s most coveted heirloom fruit, provenance and pedigree are paramount. Pesticides, not so much.
Though they’re anything but organic and far from local, for thousands of faithful, one rare and almost inedible citrus can command $200 or more.
That’s because the lumpy and otherwise unappetizing citron — better known to most Jews as an etrog and almost totally unknown to those outside the fold — is a critical element of the festival of Sukkot, which begins on Sept. 30. And while the majority of citrons sold in New York are grown in Israel or Morocco, the most prized citrus in Crown Heights comes not from the Holy Land but the Holy Roman Empire.
“The first Rebbe of Chabad, he was very pro-Israel, but when it came to etrog, he was very pro-Italian,” explained Rabbi Levi Zarchi, who travels with a contingent from Crown Heights every year to harvest citrons in Calabria. “When Moses got the commandment to get the etrog, they sent messengers to Italy to pick them up, and that’s what the Jews used in the desert.”
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