page_title: Greek citron
section_title: The new places
hierarchical_section_title: Greek citron / Role as etrog / The new places
caption_attribution_description: Parga and its castle in oct. 2005
context_page_description: The Greek citron variety of Citrus medica was botanically classified by Adolf Engler as the "variety etrog". This is remarking on its major use for the Jewish ritual etrog during Sukkot.
  It was also called pitima, or the cedro col pigolo, because its usually persisting pitom. The last does not only enhance its character, but also adds Halachic promotion.
context_section_description: Alexander Ziskind Mintz, an Ashkenazi merchant, started claiming in 1846 that only those growing in Parga are not grafted, and therefore kosher for the ritual. He claimed that under the previous Ottoman system, citrons could only be planted in Parga under the control of Ali Pasha, who collected all proceeds for the Ottoman empire, and those were thus the only citrons known as kosher and un-grafted through the years. Since the rules have been changed, and farmers are allowed to earn their income and pay only a tax, that's how the plantations have expanded to Agia and Preveza. And since those places are new, no one could not be sure whether those picked from newly planted trees, were grafted or not, at least without careful tree checking upon picking.
  The local Sephardic rabbis in head of Judah Bibas, the Chief Rabbi of Corfu, kept arguing that all of them are kosher, and that not one grafted tree is to be in the regions of cultivation. Their position was supported by the great Rabbi Chaim Palagi the chief rabbi (Hakham Bashi) of İzmir in neighboring Turkey.
  The dispute ended up with Rabbi Shlomo Kluger banning all sources including, those of Mintz, which were said to be from Parga, and Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson permitting all sources, if they bore a certification from the local rabbis.
caption: The seashore of Parga and its castle
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