Customs

By Shulamit. Printed January 10, 2025, SeventyFaces.com

In 1961, I was returning from my first trip to Israel. At JFK at that time, there was a balcony, with a glass wall, from which people could watch arriving passengers go through customs. My father z”l, the traditional conservative rabbi, watched as I went through the required interrogation.

I was carrying to him a present from his father and his brother, a product of the Pardes (orchard) we had inherited from Yehoshua Stampfer, founder of Petach Tikvah (my father’s grandfather). It was an especially valued etrog because it was rare: it was grown without a pitom (the stem-like protrusion on the other end from the stem). So for many reasons, it was precious cargo.

I could see my father laugh as the customs inspector unwrapped and held up the etrog that had been carefully packed in my suitcase. I knew there was a legal prohibition against bringing fruit into the U.S., and hoped it wouldn’t be a problem.

“This etrog has no pitom,” the inspector said, and my mouth fell open. Who was this man to know enough to make that statement? I never found out.

“It’s OK. It grew that way,” I said. And that satisfied the inspector and I was able to give my father the precious gift from the Holy Land.

We never know who we're talking to, I learned. And we never know who will enable us to perform an important mitzvah. In the coming year, let all our actions lead to good deeds.

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Shulamit

Joined: October 3, 2007

Shulamit E. Kustanowitz gained an intimacy with Jewish tradition as the daughter of a Conservative rabbi and as a Modern Orthodox adult. She authored A First Haggadah in 1979 and Henrietta Szold, Israel's Helping Hand in 1990. In 2006 her first novel, Murder at the Minyan, was published. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Record (of New Jersey), the Jerusalem Post, and elsewhere. She wrote about Israel for Travel Weekly and the travel industry and was managing editor for New Jersey's Jewish Standard newspaper.