After a Month Delay, Private Jet Rented To Allow Limited Bris

By COLlive reporter

A Bris Milah and baby naming was conducted for the son of Rabbi Yair and Geula Baitz, Shluchim of Chabad in Limassol, Cyprus, this week.

While it was a joyous occasion, it was anything but ordinary.

The boy was born over a month and a half ago in Cyprus, in midst of the global coronavirus pandemic. Israel was one of the first countries which canceled all of its flights to its Eastern Mediterranean neighbor.

Hearing about the prolonged wait, Chabad activist Rabbi Yaakov Globerman reached out to his friend, Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri who connected the Israeli and Cyprus Foreign Ministries to make it happen.

The result was a one-time permit for the Baitz family to leave the island and hold the Bris at a VIP room in the Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, without passing border control and entering the country.

A private jet was rented and the Baitz family got all dressed up for their brief flight and the Bris ceremony, after which they would fly immediately back home.

The Mohel was Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Junik who performed the Bris while the grandparents Rabbi and Mrs. Levi Baitz of Kfar Chabad and Rabbi and Mrs. Boruch Jurkowitz of Lod, watched from a safe distance.

After the naming, the grandparents wished their children and grandchildren, “Mazal Tov and safe trip!”