Unlikely Covenant

Even a volcano couldn’t keep us away from Sicily’s first bris in 500 years

Following the edict of expulsion in 1492, close to half of the Jews of Sicily pretended to convert to Christianity while furtively holding on to Jewish life. For the last five centuries, some of those traditions have continued in secret, although the reasons have been long forgotten. So when we were called in to perform the first bris in 500 years, how could we refuse?

THREE THINGS SICILY IS PROBABLY MOST FAMOUS FOR are pizza, an active volcano, and the Mafia. But one thing no one talks about are the ancient Jewish communities of this island just south of the “boot” of Italy, because the Jews pretty much disappeared from the region 500 years ago, on the heels of the Inquisition and Spanish expulsion of 1492.

So when I got a phone call late one night asking if I’d be willing to travel to Sicily to do a bris, the answer was obviously yes. Knowing that Sicily has a long and rich Jewish history dating back to Roman times, and that 1,500 years later the island was left with no known Jewish community, my curiosity was especially piqued: Who was this Jew whose baby needed to enter the Covenant of Avraham Avinu?

The mom, Noy, is an Israeli with a strong sense of Jewish identity and a powerful connection to Israel and her Jewish roots. She and her husband are in Sicily, where Noy is studying for a medical degree.

I was contacted through Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a longtime partner on many of our “mesorah quests” over the years, joining Ari Zivotovsky and me in various mitzvos in far-flung places, such as brissim, weddings, and even as a shaliach for gittin. Rabbi Birnbaum, a dayan for the Rabbanut in Israel, is involved with worldwide rabbinical placement, had been chief rabbi of his native Uruguay for several years, and was also the chief rabbi of the Italian city of Turin at one point; so he, and by association I, would become the bris delegation.