A special kind of fruit, the citron, has a high symbolic value in Judaism. It grows in Calabria, and every year, rabbis travel to Italy to choose them.
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00:00Is this a perfect citron?
00:04Every year, members of the Jewish community spend several hundred euros on this citrus delight from Italy.
00:10Why?
00:12This symbolizes the perfect fruit. In the Torah, it's called the beautiful fruit.
00:18Every Jew in the world, when it comes the holiday of Sukkot, needs this fruit as part of the blessing that he needs to make.
00:25The citrons used for Sukkot, the Jewish autumn harvest festival, are called etrogs in Hebrew, or apples of Eve.
00:33According to the Torah, or the holy scriptures of Judaism, the etrog is the most important part of a festive bouquet.
00:41The coveted citrons are grown here on the Riviera di Cedri in Calabria, Italy.
00:46They were originally introduced by Jewish immigrants.
00:51Michele Sirelli is one of about 150 citron farmers here.
00:57This fruit has grown in Calabria for several thousand years.
01:03The climate here creates the perfect conditions for it.
01:07The plant is very sensitive and can't take frost. It doesn't withstand the cold.
01:15I'm almost 80 years old and still growing these citrons.
01:20It's a fruit that I like.
01:24Every year at harvest time, Rabbi Menachem Lazar and many other rabbis come to Calabria.
01:30He makes sure the trees haven't been crossed with other varieties, so the fruits will be kosher, or clean, according to Jewish law.
01:37Then they can be used as etrogs.
01:41Michele, this is a beautiful lemon. I'd say we can pick this one. It's clean and freshly grown.
01:48The perfect etrog has to be clean, perfectly clean, and has to have a nice shape.
01:56It can't have any blemishes or any spots. It can't be missing anything.
02:01For example, over here we see that there are some blemishes.
02:05This could be still kosher, but it's not the perfect fruit that we want.
02:10The rabbis have been coming here in search of the perfect fruit for about 70 years.
02:15They say the Calabrian varieties are the best in the world.
02:19They pay the Calabrian growers 15 euros a piece.
02:23In isolated cases, the final retail price can reach several hundred euros.
02:29For our area, the Jewish community is an important source of revenue.
02:35Since they've been coming here, we've always made good money.
02:41But only a few of the fruits are usable as etrogs.
02:46Most of the harvest goes to candied lemon peel production for 2 or 3 euros per kilogram.
02:55This peel is especially thick and flavorful, perfect for making candied lemon peel,
03:00which is then used for liqueur, jam, and many other products.
03:07As ombudsman for the Jewish community, Menachem Lazar inspects and sorts the citrons.
03:13The fruits he certifies are carefully boxed up as if they were luxury items
03:18and marked with the recipient's names.
03:25And then after we pack them, we ship them all over the world,
03:29mostly to the United States, but we also ship to South America.
03:34But we also ship to South America, to Europe, to Africa, and even to Russia and Iran.
03:43Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is celebrated under reed roofs in a community in Rome.
03:49These are reminiscent of the simple huts used by Jews during their desert wanderings after the exodus from Egypt.
03:55Rabbi Menachem demonstrates how the citron is used in the festive bouquet.
04:00Every morning of the seven-day festival, the celebrants come to the synagogue to pray,
04:04and they all bring their own precious etrogs.
04:11The etrog we take for seven days during the holiday of Sukkot,
04:16because the Torah tells us that that's what we have to do.
04:19And we have to take the etrog, the citron, together with all four species.
04:23The idea is that we want to unite everything.
04:25There's different types of people, but we put them all together.
04:29The growers in Calabria are glad their products are in such demand.
04:32It's even turned around the once-imminent collapse of the area's citron farming.
04:37Even the ordinary citron fruits from Calabria are selling better thanks to the etrog, the perfect fruit.