The History of the Etrog in America

Following the ancient interpretation of Leviticus 23:40, the etrog or citron is one of the four plant species used in the rituals of Sukkot, the festival that begins this evening. The Jews of early America followed their largely northern European forbears in importing these fruits from various Mediterranean locales, and especially from Corsica and Sicily. But the Napoleonic wars cut off the supply, and in the early 19th century rabbis began to raise questions about the halakhic suitability of this variety. Jonathan Sarna and Zev Eleff explain how American’s citron market evolved thereafter: