Lubavitcher Yishaya Shafit is Russia’s flying mohel, travelling the length and breadth of the country to circumcise the young and old.
Mr Shafit, 60, is a former surgeon who gave up his job to help rejuvenate Russia’s Jewish community and bring it back to its roots.
As he stepped off a plane at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, he told the JC: “I just don’t have time any more to be a surgeon. I am here to perform five britot over the next 24 hours, then I am off again.”
One of those he circumcised in St Petersburg was a 60-year-old businessman who had rediscovered his Jewish roots.
“For the older people I administer local anaesthetic,” he said, adding: “A few years back, I circumcised a 78-year-old who became proud of his Judaism.”