For several centuries Corfu was one of the chief suppliers of Ethrogim to Jews all over the world. The use of Corfu Ethrogim by Jews is already mentioned by Giovanni Battista Ferrari, an Italian scholar and botanist, in his Hesperides, sive de Malorum Aureorum Cultura et Usu, published in Rome in 1646. (1) Ferrari writes that rich Jews in Corfu spend considerable amounts of money to buy Ethrogim that are very smooth and have no flaws. They pack them in small boxes or other containers and send them as gifts to their friends abroad.
Probably the earliest reference to Corfu Ethrogim in rabbinic literature dates from the second half of the eighteenth century; it appears in a book by David Pardo, (2) a rabbi in Sarajevo, Bosnia, who settled in Jerusalem towards the end of his life. Another reference is in the writings of Daniel Terni, (3) rabbi of Florence, a younger contemporary of David Pardo.
As the Corfu fruit was very beautiful, the Ethrogim were very popular in Jewish communities. Ironically, it was the beauty of Corfu Ethrogim which caused East European rabbis early in the nineteenth century to doubt their fitness (Kashruth). They suspected that the growers in Corfu were crossing the Ethrogim with other citrus fruits to enhance their beauty, hence rendering them ritually unfit.
Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margulies (1760-1828), one of the leading rabbis of Galicia, defended the Kashruth of the Corfu Ethrogim. In a lengthy responsum discussing grafting in the growing of Ethrogim, he stated that a trustworthy person who had visited the island and seen the Ethrog groves had told him that these Ethrogim were not products of grafting. (4)
The Publication of Pri Etz Hadar
In 1846. Pri Etz Hadar, a collection of responsa on Ethrogim was published in Lwow (Lemberg) Galicia (then Austria-Hungary). These responsa do not deal directly with Corfu Ethrogim but with those that were grown in Parga Rapeza and Ayia. Parga is a port city on the western coast of Greece. Rapeza and Ayia are about one and a half miles and three miles respectively further inland. At that time, Parga, Rapeza and Atia were under the suzerainty of the Ottoman empire, The Ethrogim from these localities were exported via Corfu and certified as kosher by the rabbi of that island.
The publication of Pri Etz Hadar was initiated by an importer of Ethrogim, Rabbi Elazar Ziskind Mintz of Brody. In this book, as well as in announcements he had published earlier, he asserted that the Ethrogim imported from Rapeza and Ayia were the products of grafted trees and were therefore not kosher. Rabbi Mintz wrote that for years he himself had been importing Ethrogim grown in Parga in groves which he said belonged to the sultan and which were undoubtedly kosher. The sultan’s groves were supervised and its fruits cut by trustworthy individuals, so that no grafting was done there. Initially, he pointed out, private people did not plant Ethrogim because any fruit was was grown automatically belonged to the sultan or local pasha. In recent years, however, the law had been changed anyone was now permitted to plant trees under the condition that he pay certain tax to the authorities. As a result, the local Ottoman and Green inhabitants of Rapeza and Ayia (the neighboring localities of Parga) began to plant Ethrogim for sale to Jews. These Ethrogim were transported by non-Jews to Trieste by way of Corfu. There was no guarantee that these Ethrogim were not products of grafting. True the rabbi of Corfu and also the rabbi of Trieste certified the Ethrogim as kosher, but Rabbi MIntz claimed, the rabbi of Corfu had been misled into believing that the Ethrogim he certified were grown in Parga. The rabbi of Trieste, in turn had been misled by the certificates of the rabbi of Corfu. Both rabbis, he continued, had been lax in their supervision.
The views of Rabbi Mintz were supported by several East European rabbis, notably by Rabbi Solomon Kluger of Brody (1785 -1869), one of the most prominent rabbis of Galicia. Several statements by Rabbi Kluger prohibiting the use of Ethrogim grown in Rapeza and Ayia were included in Pri Etz Hadar.
Rabbi Mintz also reproduced in Pri Etz Hadar, a statement signed by Rabbi Judah Bibas, rabbi of Corfu , and Abraham de Caso and Shmuel Haim Levy, leaders of the Jewish community claiming there had never been a difference between the Ethrogim grown in Parga and those grown in Rapeza and Ayia.
This statement, Rabbi Mintz wrote was issued in response to his announcement regarding the ritual unfitness of the Ethrogim grown in Rapeza nd Ayia. He claimקd that the two people who signed together with the rabbi were partners of the non-Jewish Ethrog growers in Rapeza and Ayia; they were unlearned and initially misled the rabbi of Corfu into certifying the Ethrogim and had now prevailed upon him to issue the above statement. Both Rabbi Mintz and Rabbi Kluger ridiculed the statement issued by the rabbi of Corfu.
Repudiations
Rabbi Bibas’s reaction to these aspersions on the ritual fitness of the Ethrogim of Rapeza and Ayia was not long in coming. In a long responsum,(5) he dealt in great detail with all the legal aspects involving the case. Rabbi Bibas revealed that when he became rabbi of Corfu and was given the task of certifying the Ethrogim exported from the island, he decided to refuse payment for his efforts in order to avoid a disqualifying interest in the matter. With the consent of the community, the income for the certification was devoted to the support of the Jewish poor passing through the city. (6)
Rabbi Bibas repudiated Rabbi Mintz’s allegations, insisting that the Ethrogim of Parga, Rapeza and Ayia were all kosher. Due to the warm climate, there was no need for the grating of the trees. Moreover, the growers who cultivated the Ethrogim for sale solely to the Jews, were aware that the Jews do not use Ethrogim from grafted trees. They would not want to harm their own interests by grafting trees. Rabbi Bibas added that individuals delegated by the Corfu Rabbinical Court went to the Ethrog groves and remained there during the entire harvest season. This showed the growers how strict the Jews were with regard to the Kashruth of the Ethrogim.
Rabbi Bibas denied that the Ethrogim of Parga had come from the groves owned by the sultan. Parga, Bibas wrote, had once belonged to the British who then sold it to the Turks. eE was probably referring to the Convention Sir Thomas Maitland , the first British Lord High Commissioner signed in May 1817, which ceded Pargo to Ali Pasha. (7) Since the Turks had control over the land they demanded from the Greek inhabitants a share of the revenue from the produce of Parga. The Turkish ruler received forty percent and the Greek growers sixty percent. After describing the development of the Ethrog trade in the area, Rabbi Bibas wrote that he had discovered that until a few years earlier, Rabbi Mintz himself had been engaged in the sale of Ethrogim grown in Ayia. While Mintz’s former partners continued to buy Ethrogim from Rapeza and Ayia, Mintz himself purchased Ethrogim growing in Parga. Rabbi Bibas asserted that Mintz for business reasons, wanted to cast doubt on the Kashruth of the Ethrogim grown in Rapeza and Ayia because those groves were bought by his former partners– his present competitors. Rabbi Bibas also commented that the rabbis backing Mintz should not have relied on the statements of someone involved in the matter but should have investigated in on their own.
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Testimonies given at the Corfu Beis Din
Rabbi Bibas attached to his responsum, testimonies given before him at the Corfu Bet Din confirming that the fact there was no difference in Kashruth between the Ethrogim grown in Parga and those from Rapeza and Ayia. The following are English abstracts of the testimonies: (8):
a
Gavriel the son of Matityahu, formerly of Janina, a resident of Corfu, stated that he had visited Parga twenty-one years ago. He saw the gardens and groves of Parga stretched from one end of the city till Rapeza, almost touching the groves of that location, with only one path separating them. Moreover, most of the trees in Parga grow on the waters of Rapeza. When asked whether the non-Jewish growers grafted trees, he replied that he had never heard of such a thing begin done. He said that the non-Jews cultivated the Ethrogim specifically for the use of Jews and that they knew that is the Jews had reasons to suspect the non-employed employed grafting in these groves, they would lose their business. Gabriel further testified that the fruits of Parga, Rapeza and Ayia were all picked together and packed int he same boxes. All were labelled as coming from Parga at the time of his visit. He had never heard that the Ethrogim had been divided into three separate groups, Rapeza, Ayia and Parga. Later, however the merchants had become involved in arguments and each of them made his purchases on his own account. At that point it became necessary to specify each section from which each dealer obtained his fruit.
b.
Shlomo Aboaf testified: “My father used to sell Ethrogim to the Ethrogim merchant Margulies from Vienna close to fifty years ago. He would go to Parga each year immediately after Shavuot and remain there until all the Ethrogim had been gathered in. HE would do this every year and I too went there in 1832. All these years they would gather the fruits from Parga, Rapeza and Ayia and ship them together as one under the name of Parga. They did not differentiate between the Ethrogim of these three localities. Asked whether he had heard or seen that the non-Jews used grafting in growing their fruit, he replied that he had never seen such a thing happen. However, he had had heard from his father that once, thirty years ago, it happened in one grove in Parga that they grafted a branch from an Ethrog tree unto a lemon tree. When his father discovered this, he forced the owner to uproot the tree and bun it. From that time on such as accident was never again reported because the growers were afraid of the Jewish merchants.
C.
Shlomo Belleli testified that forty years earlier he used to go with Reuven de Semo to gather Ehtrogim. “We packed the Ethrogim of Paga, Rapeza and Ayia in the same boxes without any differentiation and between them.” When asked whether Rapeza and Paga were near each other, Shlomo replied: “How can they be far from each other when a great deal of the groves of Parga are watered from the waters of Rapeza.” He was also asked whether he had seen or heard that non-Jewish growers were engaged in grafting trees. He replied that close to thirty years ago, it once happened in the city of Parga that a grower grafted a branch of an Ethrog tree onto a lemon tree. However, the late Reuven de Semo and other Jewish merchants forced the grower to uproot the tree and burn it together with the fruit. Since then he had never heard of such a case again.
d.
Yitzchak Baruch stated that he ahd been in Parga a year earlier. At that time, he had walked through all the groves of Parga, Rapeza and Ayia and did not see among them any grafted trees and had never heard of such a thing happening. He said all the trees were the same and looked alike.
e.
A group of merchants submitted to the Corfu Bet Din two letters written in Italian in Trieste. One was dated June 30, 1843 and other October 15 of the same year. Both were signed by A. Mintz. The merchants testified that this was the signature of Alexander Ziskind Mintz. It is clear from the letter that Mintz knew that Rapeza Ethrogim were sold with the label of Parga and that he himself had done so.
The recorded testimony further states that the merchants had asked the Bet Din to publish the testimonies and force Mintz to admit that the Ethrogim of Rapeza and Ayia were always sold as coming from Parga. The Bet Din agreed, and the permission was granted to publish the evidence and disseminate it in order that the truth be known.
The rabbi of Trieste, Rabbi Shabbetai Elchancan Treves, who according to Mintz had been misled into certifying the Kashruth of Rapeza and Ayia Ethrogim, wrote a sharp letter. (9) He pointed out that the evidence of Rabbi Mintz was not trustworthy since he was personally involved in the matter and that Mintz had sold Ethrogim from Rapeza and Ayia for years as kosher and labelled them as coming from Parga as long as he had been buying these Ethrogim. Only last year did he declare that these fruits had been the products of grafting because they had been bought by his competitors. In this letter Rabbi Treves goes on to criticize and ridicule Rabbi Mintz and the rabbis who supported him. For a short time, the doubts regarding the Kashruth of the Ethrogim were allayed. (10)
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Prohibitions against the Use of Corfu Ethrogim
In 1871, Rabbi Isaac Rapahel Tedeschi, rabbi of Corfu wrote to Rabbi Chaim Elazar of Wachs of Kalish, Poland who had asked him about the kashruth of the Ethrogim of Rapeza and Ayia:(11}
“I am astonished at your question. It is known that I Issue to the merchants who export from these places as well as from Corfu certificates, Confirming their Kashruth. We would not have issued any certificates had there been any doubt.
These assurances did not dispel the doubts for long. In the spring of 1875. Rabbi Elchanan Spektor, rabbi of Kovno, Lithuania forbade his community the use of Ethrogim from Corfu. His reason was twofold: 1) there were doubts regarding the Kashruth of these Ethrogim 2) the Greek growers and traders were hiking up the prices and taking advantage of the Jews’ willingness to buy at any price. Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor and his two rabbinical cosigners declared (12):
“Who knows whether they will not double their prices again. Growers and traders in other countries will learn from them to do likewise and cause Jewish money to go to waste…. For these reasons, we the undersigned together with leading members of our community have forbidden in our city… the use of Ethrogim from Corfu until we know for sure that they are kosher and the growers and traders have stopped charging exorbitant prices.”
Although this prohibition was issued only for the Jews of Kovno, rabbis in other localities of Lithuania followed suit and forbade the use of Corfu Ethrogim in their communities. Under the impact of these prohibitions issued by Lithuanian rabbis, importers of Corfu Ethrogim in Poland made special efforts to assure buyers that the Ethrogim they were supplying them were strictly kosher.
In September of 1875, the Hebrew weekly HaMaggid published announcements by two Warsaw Ethrog importers. One importer announced that he had sent a well known Torah scholar and G-d fearing man to Corfu. He had bought beautiful and strictly kosher Ethrogim, bringing with him certificates by the rabbis of Corfu and Trieste. (13)
The other announcement was by the administration of the Jewish hospital for the poor in Warsaw which engaged in the sale of Ethrogim. The announcement stated that the administration had sent two people to Corfu and Parga to examine the Ethrog groves. Having discovered a large number of trees which were grafted, they bought only fruits of trees which they knew were not grafted. They were present at the picking and packing of the Ethrogim and sealed them with their own seal. The announcement warned Jews to boy only Ethrogim which carried the seal. This announcement, which also stressed that the proceeds of the sale of the Ethrogim went to the Jewish hospital was signed by many Polish rabbis and Hassidic leaders. (14)
It is very possible that the latter announcement which stated that there were grafted trees in Corfu and Parga was made only to discourage potential buyers from purchasing Ethrogim from competitors. The fact that the Jewish hospital used its own seal shows that its administration regarded the rabbis of Corfu and Trieste as unreliable.
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It may have been because the market for Ethrogim was limited, or perhaps the Greek growers and traders were certain that no matter what the price, Jews would buy their Ethrogim. In any case, the Greeks kept on raising the prices until even the rabbis who had no qualms about the Kashruth of Corfu Ethrogim decided to take action on economic grounds. (15) It was customary for Sephardic Jews in England to purchase Ethrogim from Morocco while the Ashkenazi Jews were accustomed to buy Corfu Ethrogim. In 1878, because of the exorbitant prices demanded by the Greek growers and traders, Chief Rabbi Nathan M. Adler permitted the Ashkenazi Jews to change their custom and use Moroccan Ethrogim.
The London Jewish Chronicle of October 4, 1878 comments:
…”The reason formerly alleged by the Ev. Doctor Adler for his unwillingness to sanction the use of fruits from Morocco was merely not to depart from existing custom. There was no motive why the German Jews should enrich the Greeks by paying a price for their citrons out of all proportion with their value beyond the fact that their fathers had done the same… Dr. Adler has fortunately altered his decision in this respect….”
The prices demanded by the Greeks became so high that the Jewish merchants who came to Trieste decided to refuse buying their Ethrogim thus forcing them to lower the prices. However, the Greeks remained firm and the Jews had to succumb. Finally in 1882 when the Greeks more than doubled their prices, the Jewish merchants decided to act in unity. They chose a committee of ten persons, headed by Rabbi Abraham Yitzchok Maskil Le’Eytan, rabbi of Smolovitz, White Russia. Each of the merchants deposited a certain sum as surety that he would not buy Ethrogim for Corfu without the permission of the committee.
The Greeks did not want to give in. They declared that even if all the Jews would stand on their heads they would not take a penny off the price.
The Jews replied that if all the Greeks would throw themselves into the abyss, they would not pay more than one florin for an Ethrog. The quarrel between the Jews and the Greeks became the talk of Trieste. The Jews bought Ethrogim from Genoa, Corsica, Morocco and Palestine, but not from Corfu. In the end, the Greeks lowered their prices, and the merchants bought small quantities of their Ethrogim. (16) As is evident from prices quoted in newspaper advertisements the Greeks ceased from then on to demand exorbitant prices.
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The Hibbat Zion Movement and Ethrogim of the Holy Land
Jewish Solidarity with the Land of Israel
The dispute regarding the ritual fitness of the Corfu Ethrogim, the constant raising of the prices by the Greek growers and traders and the growth among the Jewish of the Hibbat Zion movement, whose aim was to establish Jewish settlements in Palestine — all contributed to the idea of planting Ethrog groves in Palestine which supply Jews all over the world with Ethrogim.
In 1875 a reader wrote the following letter to the London Jewish Chronicle (17)
Sir, having read in the foreign Hebrew newspapers the dispute about the Ethrogim, a subject, of which I have no wish to decide, I will suggest a remedy which in time will settle all disputes and will bring a good income, say fifty or one hundred thousand pounds a year to more deserving people that the Greek. The suggestion is this: that the citron tree should be cultivated in the agricultural grounds near Jaffa, from plants brought from Corfu and I am sure that in five and ten years Palestine would be able to supply the Jews of the globe as this fruit is most valuable to us. I really cannot imagine why all the money we pay into the hands of the Greeks should not be made to assist brethren in the Holy Land, and thus save them in a matter from starvation and beggary, as I am sure they will be able to work in the gardens and earn their living, the profits of which will be for all. For the Ethrogim will be more profitable to cultivate that the olive or the vine. A few trees planted at once, say fifty will in one year show us pretty well what may be done in the matter as there is not much difference in climate of these two places.
Your obediently
Leon Schlossberg
Rabbi Chaim Elazar Wachs of Poland, who as mentioned earlier had addressed to Rabbi Tedeschi of Corfu an inquiry regarding the Kashruth of the Corfu Ethrogim, was an enthusiastic follower of the Hibbat Zion Movement. He bought land in Kfar Hittim near Tiberias and established an Ethrog grove there. (18) His purpose was twofold: to settle Jews on the land and to supply Jews with Ethrogim. Not long afterwards (1877) he issued a declaration which was signed by over 120 rabbis that wherever it was possible to obtain Ethrogim grow in the Holy Land, one should not use Ethrogim from Corfu. (19)
Rabbi Wachs wrote on a visit to Warsaw, he was told by many people who had gone to Corfu to boy Ethrogim that they heard there that in “many islands,” such as Rapeza, they never grew Ethrogim, only lemons. Only recently when the price of Ethrogim rose did they begin to graft branches of Ethrogim onto lemon trees. Until his death in 1889, Rabbi Wachs energetically promoted the sale of Erez Yisrael Ethrogim.
The Rabbi of Radzin Proclaims Corfu Ethrogim Kosher
A staunch defender of the Corfu Ethrogim was the prominent Hasidic leader, Rabbi Gershom Henoch Lainer of Radzin (1839-1891) Rabbi Leiner visited Italy in search of the Hillazon, the fish from which the Teckelet (blue dye) was extracted for the dyeing of Tzizit (fringes) He also visited Corfu to examine the Ethrog groves for himself.
Upon his return to Poland, Rabbi Lainer publicly stated:
I want to make known to all of Israel that I myself inspected the Ethrog groves… There were no grafted trees there. The rabbi of the community has announced many times that whoever could bring him a Corfu Ethrog which came from a grafted tree would receive from him ten thalers.. Yaakov Matitya, one of the wealthy Jews of the island, showed me letters from leading rabbis of the Holy Land asking him and his late father to send them Ethrogim.
Rabbi Lainer also stated that the leading Hasidic leaders of the past used Ethrogim from Corfu. Repudiating these Ethrogim was tantamount to declaring that these Hasidic leaders had not acted property. Rabbi Lainer’s statements were displayed in the Shtiblach of Poland. (20)
The Blood Libel of 1891 and the Boycott of Corfu Ethrogim
The blood libel of 1891 against the Jews of Corfu shocked and enraged world Jewry. The rabbis now reinforced their earlier statements prohibiting the use of Corfu Ethrogim. Jewish newspapers published appeals to boycott ethrogim grow in in Greece and in particular those of Corfu. They asked Jews to boy Ethrogim from the Land of Israel thereby supporting the Yishuv . (21)
There were some who opposed the boycott. The Corfu Jewish community collected a tax from all the Etrogim exported from the island and used this money to support the poor. The opponents claimed, quoting the rabbi of Corfu Rabbi Alexander de Fano that the boycott would hurt not only the Greek Ethrog growers but also the Jewish poor of the island. (22)
The London Jewish Chronicle carried the following letter of a reader: (23)
Sir,
It is time that some stop should be put to the continuous meddling of the Jews of one country with what concerns those living in another, without previously consulting them on the matter which in many cases causes them unwittingly serious injury. These gratuitous busy bodies should previously to taking any steps, make themselves acquainted with authentic facts.
The senseless boycott of Corfu Ethrogim is a case in point. I should advocate this reprisal on the Greek inhabitants engaged in the trade were it not that on every Ethrog exported by them a tax is levied which is paid over to the Jewish synagogues and charities, by which they are enabled to be partly maintain as the congregation is not over rich. This can be confirmed by the Chief rabbi of Corfu, whose view on the subject is identical to mine. I should advise everybody to buy at the cheapest market the various specious specimens having regard to quality and in order to promote an increased use of this fruit for religious purposes. I hope hundreds this year will buy one by which they will do much good to the poor inhabitants of the Holy Land, Corfu and Morocco.
Yours obediently
H. Guedella
One of the major rabbinical opponents of the boycott was Rabbi Mordechai Joseph Lainer, a son of the aforementioned Rabbi Gershom Henoch Lainer. In an announcement which was distributed in the Shtiblach in Poland (24) he sharply criticized those who had declared a boycott of the Ethrogim of Corfu for having done so without consulting the Corfu Jewish community. He stated that he had written to the rabbi of Corfu concerning the matter and the rabbi had conveyed to him that he and the community were against the boycott which would not only financially harm the community but also jeopardize their political situation.
These arguments of the opponents of the boycott could not carry much weight with those who opposed the buying of Corfu Ethrogim on religious grounds. To them the blood libel of 1891 was only an added reason. As for others, the growing importance of the nationalistic idea led them to buy Ethrogim for the land of Israel.
David Yudlevitz, a contributor to Hamagid (25) wrote that he visited Rabbi Joseph Aboaf, Chief Rabbi of Greece in Athens. When asked about the boycott of the Corfu Ethrogim, whether it could harm the Corfu Jews politically and whether it would cause them financial losses, the Chief Rabbi declared that the Jews of Corfu had nothing to fear from the government and that the Corfiote Jews were not too involved in the Ethrogim trade and thus would not suffer financially. The Chief Rabbi stressed that the rabbis must declare a boycott of the Greek Ethrogim in order to avenge the Jewish bloodshed. When told that the rabbi of Corfu was bitter about the boycott, Rabbi Aboaf answered that it was to be expected that the rabbi of Corfu would say that.
The calls for a boycott of the Ethrogim of Corfu (26) continued for several years. These together with wider sales of Ethrogim grown in the Holy Land eventually led to an end of the Corfu Ethrogim. (27)
1) S. Tolkowsky, Peri Etz Hadar, 1966
2) David Pardo, Mikhtam Ledavid, Orah Hayyim (1772) # 18
3) Daniel Terni, Ikkerei DInim, Orah Hayyim (1803) #33
4) Responsa Bet Ephraim, Orah Hayyim (1884) # 56
5) The responsum is printed in Hayyim Pallagi’s Lev Haayim (1874) vol. 2 # 122
6)Jbid. See also Benveniste-Mizrachi Bibas, pp. 322-323
7) Michael Pratt, Britain’s Greek Empire, London, 1978 p. 120
8) A lithographed copy of the testimonies is JTSM, mic. 8584 EN Adler 4109
9) Ibid.
10) The letters of Rabbi Bibas and Rabbi Treves had the desired effect. PRominent rabbis of Eastern Europe accepted their views and declared the Ethrogim of Ayia and Rapeza kosher. See Hayyim Pallagi, #123, #124.
11) Ketzat Mikitvei David Avraham Hai Veyitzchak Rafael Ashkenazi (Tedeschi) 1932 pp. 101-102.
12) Rabbi Spektor’s prohibition which originally appeared in HaLevanon was reprinted in Toledot Yitzchak (1897), a biography of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor, pp. 72-73.
13) HaMaggid, Sept 1; September 8
14) Ibid. September 29.
15) Zalman Epstein, HaMelitz, 1883. # 34
16) The story of the confrontation between the Jewish merchants and the Greek Ethrog growers and traders is related at length by Naftali Maskil Le’ethan, himself a prominent Ethrog merchant from Russia in HaMelitz, 1883, #43, #44.
17) JC September, 1875
18) Geula Bat Yehuda, “Chaim Elazar Wachs, Entziklopedia shel Hatiyonit Hadatit, volume 2, 1960
19) The declaration was published in Rabbi Wachs’ responsa Nefesh Haya, Orah Hayyim (1877, #4
20) These statements were reprinted by Rabbi Mordechai Joseph Lainer, the present Radzier Rebbe, at the end of his edition of Rabbi Gershom Henach Lainer’s Sod Yesharim on the Torah (1971).
21) A list of rabbis who appealed to use only Ethrogim from the land of Israel, rabbinic statements prohibiting Corfu Ethrogim and reprints of Hebrew newspaper articles about the boycott are included in Ephraim Deinards’ Milhama LasShem BaAmalek (1892) Yalkut Pri Etz Hadar (1898) by Judah Noah is a collection of rabbinic statements prohibiting Corfu Ethrogim.
22) See Milhama LaShem BeAmalek by Ephraim Deinard, p. 29 where a statement by Raabi Dr. Plato quoting the rabbi of Crfu is reproduced.
23) June 26, 1891
24) This statement was reprinted by Rabbi Mordechai Joseph Lainer, the present Radzier Rebbe,at the end of his new edition of Beit Yaakov on Exodus by Rabbi Yaakov Lainer of Ishbitza and Radzin.
25) October 28, 1891
26) See also the arguments of the opponents of the boycott and the replies of those who advocated it is Deinard’s Milhama LaShem BeAmalek, pp. 16-18, 29.31
27) Margalit Preschel, “Ein Ethrogim Befkorfu” Israel Shelanut, October 15, 1982.