High-flyingmohel answers call from overseas couples

FOR MOST, the pandemic has put a temporary halt to the jet-setting lifestyle. But Israeli travel restrictions caused by the Covid outbreak led to GoldersGreenmohelRabbiYossiSimon racking up air miles as he officiated at four overseas brit milot in as many days.

He started in Cyprus where the community would normally rely on mohelim from Israel — an hour’s flight away. But with the Jewish state in lockdown, Rabbi Simon has been in demand.

The Chabad minister first performed a brit for a family in Larnaca, going on to Limassol to conduct another before sunset.

Thinking his work was done, he headed back to his hotel in advance of a return flight the following day. But he was then contacted by a rabbi in North Cyprus. The parents of a six-month-old had been unable to arrange a brit and could Rabbi Simon perform it?

By “divine providence”, North Cyprus had changed its regulations that day, meaning that he would not have to quarantine for two weeks — just until his Covid test on the border had come back.

And having performed the third brit, he received another call — this time from Rabbi Yitzi Loewenthal in Denmark. A couple living in Aarhus, three hours from Copenhagen, had a new born son and needed a mohel.

The following morning, Rabbi Simon was unable to leave the quarantine hotel as the North Cypriot Ministry of Health couldn’t locate his test. After an hour of negotiations, he was allowed to leave, given his negative test results elsewhere. “That was a bit of a hair-raising experience”.

There was enough time to travel back to London for kosher supplies before he was on a plane again for the fourth brit. Coincidentally, he had officiated at the brit of the other child of the couple in Denmark, who were originally from Israel.

“It’s a very good feeling going back a second time, third time, fourth time,” Rabbi Simon added. “But you have to give a different speech each time.”

It’s a good feeling going back a second time, third and fourth’