U.S. and Canadian Border Officials Briefed on Arba Minim

For the first time, Montreal’s Jewish Community Council brought together more than 50 American and Canadian border officials to help ensure smooth crossings for travelers carrying lulavim and esrogim ahead of Sukkos.

As Jewish families prepare for Sukkos, the Jewish Community Council of Montreal (JCC), is once again working directly with Canadian and American border authorities to ensure that travelers carrying lulavim and esrogim can cross the border smoothly and without unnecessary difficulty.

This year, however, marked an important first.

For the first time, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, participated in a joint meeting bringing together more than 50 officials from both the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The meeting brought officials from both sides of the border together for a coordinated briefing ahead of Sukkos, allowing Rabbi Emanuel to explain the religious significance of the arba minim, the requirements surrounding their handling, and the importance of ensuring that frontline officers understand what Jewish travelers will be carrying during the holiday.

The message for travelers ahead of Sukkos 2026 is straightforward: Jewish travelers may travel between Canada and the United States with their lulavim and esrogim, subject to the normal declaration and inspection requirements at the border.

The annual preparations are the continuation of an initiative stretching back more than two decades.

In the early 2000s, Jewish travelers were encountering difficulties at border crossings because officials unfamiliar with the arba minim would sometimes confiscate lulavim and esrogim. Rabbi Emanuel took the issue directly to American authorities, travelling to Washington and meeting with officials from the newly established Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Those discussions ultimately helped produce guidelines in 2003 under which border personnel were educated about the religious purpose of the arba minim and procedures were established for their declaration and inspection.

What began as an effort to solve a recurring problem has since developed into an annual undertaking.

Every year before Sukkos, Rabbi Emanuel meets directly with border authorities to ensure officials know when the holiday is taking place, understand the expected increase in Jewish travelers, recognize the lulav and esrog, and know how these religious objects should be inspected and handled.

That work is not limited to senior officials or meetings in conference rooms. Rabbi Emanuel visits airports and land border crossings and meets directly with officials responsible for processing travelers. The goal is practical: to make sure the people actually working at ports of entry understand what they will encounter when Jewish travelers arrive carrying their arba minim.

The 2026 joint meeting represents a significant expansion of that longstanding effort by bringing the Canadian and American agencies together in the same room.

“Every year, our priority is to make sure Jewish travelers can observe Sukkot without encountering unnecessary problems at the border,” Rabbi Emanuel said. “That means working directly with the people responsible for our borders, explaining what a lulav and esrog are, why they are important, and how they need to be treated. This year, for the first time, we were able to bring together more than 50 representatives of both CBSA and CBP for a joint discussion. That level of cooperation is extremely encouraging.”

The relationship has been built through years of direct engagement between the Jewish Community Council and officials on both sides of the border.

For travelers, much of that work is deliberately invisible. A family arriving at an airport or driving across the Canada-U.S. border with an esrog and lulav may experience nothing more than a routine declaration and inspection. But making that encounter routine has required years of education, relationship-building and annual preparation behind the scenes.

The Council is reminding travelers that they should continue to declare their arba minim when entering Canada or the United States and cooperate with any required inspection. Travelers should not attempt to conceal or bypass the normal customs and agricultural declaration process.

The Jewish Community Council of Montreal’s involvement in the issue dates back to the creation of the modern procedures more than 20 years ago and has continued through annual meetings and briefings ever since.

For Rabbi Emanuel, the objective remains the same as it was when he first approached border authorities: ensuring that government officials understand Jewish religious practice before a misunderstanding at the border becomes a problem for a Jewish traveler.

With Sukkot approaching, that preparation has once again been completed. And following this year’s unprecedented joint meeting between Canadian and American border authorities, travelers on both sides of the border can prepare for Yom Tov knowing that officials have once again been briefed on the lulav, esrog and the needs of the Jewish community.

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