Peruvian Jews in Israel

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There are several groups of Peruvian Jews in Israel.

Contents

B'nai Moshe

B'nai Moshe, commonly known as "Inca Jews" are small group of several hundred converts to Judaism originally from the city of Trujillo, Peru. They started to be formally converted during 1985–1987, and about 500 of whom emigrated to Israel in 1990s.

Most B'nai Moshe now live in the West Bank, mostly in Elon Moreh [1] and Kfar Tapuach. [2]

Amazonian Jews

A group of so-called Amazonian Jews from Iquitos, Peru immigrated to Israel in the late 20th century; they had to undergo formal conversion. Some of the Peruvians descended from male Sephardi Jews from Morocco who had gone to work in the city during the Amazon rubber boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They had intermarried with Peruvian women, establishing families that gradually became assimilated as Catholics. In the 1990s, one descendant led an exploration and study of Judaism; eventually a few hundred adopted Jewish practices and converted before making aliyah to Israel. [3] [4] The first 98 new immigrants, 18 families, have emigrated to Israel in 2010, and settled in Beer Sheva and Ramla. [5]

Another 150 immigrants came to Israel from Peru during 2013 - 2014 and they were mostly settled in Ramla. [5] [6]

As of 2020 there were more formal converts in Iquitos willing to move to Israel, but their applications stayed unprocessed for unknown reasons. [7]

The Fire Within: Jews in the Amazonian Rainforest (2008) is a documentary about the Jewish descendants in Iquitos and their efforts to revive Judaism and emigrate to Israel in the late 20th century. It is written, directed and produced by Lorry Salcedo Mitrani. [8] [9] Before that Salcedo published the book (Salcedo: photos, Henry Mitrani Reaño: text) The Eternal Return: Homage to the Jewish Community of Peru [El eterno retorno : retrato de la comunidad judío-peruana] (2002) on the subject. [10]

Other

90 more converted immigrants (18 families) from Peru were settled in Alon Shvut and Karmei Tzur in 2002, mostly from Lima. [11]

See also

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Kurdish Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Kurdish Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number between 200,000 and 500,000.

Moroccan Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Moroccan Jewish communities who now reside within the state of Israel. The 2019 Israeli census counts 472,800 Jews born in Morocco or with a Moroccan-born father, although according to the World Federation of Moroccan Jewry, nearly one million Israeli Jews are Moroccan or of Moroccan descent, making them the second-largest community in the country.

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Sephardic Bnei Anusim is a modern term which is used to define the contemporary Christian descendants of an estimated quarter of a million 15th-century Sephardic Jews who were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th century in Spain and Portugal. The vast majority of conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, and their descendants, who number in the millions, live in both of these countries. The small minority of conversos who did emigrate normally chose to emigrate to destinations where Sephardic communities already existed, particularly to the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, but also to more tolerant cities in Europe, where many of them immediately reverted to Judaism. In theory, very few of them would have traveled to Latin America with colonial expeditions, as only those Spaniards who could certify that they had no recent Muslim or Jewish ancestry were supposed to be allowed to travel to the New World. Recent genetic studies suggest that the Sephardic ancestry present in Latin American populations arrived at the same time as the initial colonization, which suggests that significant numbers of recent converts were able to travel to the new world and contribute to the gene pool of modern Latin American populations despite an official prohibition on them doing so. In addition, later arriving Spanish immigrats would have themselves contributed additional converso ancestry in some parts of Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Peru</span> Jews in Peru

The history of the Jews in Peru begins with the arrival of migration flows from Europe, Near East and Northern Africa.

References

  1. "Though not an inclusive bunch, Perus few Jews persevere" (retrieved January 24, 2022)
  2. Ilan Stavans, The Seventh Heaven: Travels Through Jewish Latin America, p. 134
  3. "Adopting Forebears’ Faith and Leaving Peru for Israel", By Simon Romero, June 21, 2009, The New York Times
  4. Anastasia Mechan, "Jews from the Amazons", November 3, 2016 The Jerusalem Post
  5. 1 2 Rita Saccal, "The Jews of Iquitos (Peru)"
  6. Zohar Blumenkrantz and Judy Maltz, "New Group of 'Amazon Jews' Arrives in Israel", Haaretz, 14 July 2013, accessed 19 August 2015
  7. are Jews stuck in the Amazon? The Times of Israel September 1, 2020, by Rabbi Andrew Sacks, director of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel and the Religious Affairs Bureau
  8. "The Fire Within: Jews in the Amazonian Rainforest"
  9. "Hidden Roots in the Jungle. A new film spotlights a far-flung group seeking connection with the mainstream" by ROBIN CEMBALEST JANUARY 07, 2009, Tablet Magazine
  10. "Inside the NYJFF: Exploring The Fire Within", by Ronit Waisbrod, New York Jewish Film Festival correspondent
  11. Neri Livneh, "How 90 Peruvians became the latest Jewish settlers", The Guardian , August 6, 2002

Further reading