There are several groups of Peruvian Jews in Israel.
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]
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 [update] 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]
90 more converted immigrants (18 families) from Peru were settled in Alon Shvut and Karmei Tzur in 2002, mostly from Lima. [11]
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described as "the act of going up", moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action—emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel—is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida. The Law of Return that was passed by the Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity.
Iquitos is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the ninth-most populous city in Peru. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road that is not on an island; it is only accessible by river and air.
Jewish ethnic divisions refer to many distinctive communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local communities, and subsequent independent evolutions.
The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.
The Bnei Menashe is a community of Indian Jews from various Tibeto-Burmese ethnic groups from the border of India and Burma who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel; some of them have adopted Judaism. The community has around 10,000 members.
Subbotniks is a common name for adherents of Russian religious movements that split from Sabbatarian sects in the late 18th century.
The Second Aliyah was an aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman-ruled Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire, some from Yemen.
The B'nai Moshe, also known as Inca Jews, are a small group of several hundred converts to Judaism originally from the city of Trujillo, Peru, to the north of the capital city Lima. Judaism moved to the south into Arequipa and to other populated cities like Piura.
Aliyah from Ethiopia is the immigration of the Beta Israel people to Israel. Early forms of Zionism have existed in Ethiopia since the mid 19th-century, as shown in the 1848 letters from the Beta Israel to Jews in Europe praying for the unification of Jews. A year after the first letter was sent, Daniel Ben Hananiah and his son were sent by the Kahen to Jerusalem and made contact with the Jewish leaders there.
Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis are Israeli citizens and nationals who are Jewish through either their Jewish ethnicity and/or their adherence to Judaism. The term also includes the descendants of Jewish Israelis who have emigrated and settled outside of the State of Israel, where they are predominantly found in the Western world. The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews speak Hebrew, a Semitic language, as their native tongue.
Amazonian Jews are the Jews of the Amazon basin, mainly descendants of Moroccan Jews who migrated to northern Brazil and Peru in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The migrants were attracted to the growing trade in the Amazon region, especially during the rubber boom, as well as to the newly established religious tolerance. They settled in localities along the Amazon River, such as Belém, Cametá, Santarém, Óbidos, Parintins, Itacoatiara and Manaus in Brazil, some venturing as far as Iquitos in Peru.
Indian Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Indian Jewish communities, who now reside within the State of Israel. Indian Jews who live in Israel include thousands of Cochin Jews and Paradesi Jews of Kerala; tens of thousands from the Bene Israel of Maharashtra and other parts of British India and the Bene Menashe of Manipur and Mizoram.
Georgian Jews in Israel, also known as Gruzinim, are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Georgian Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number around 75,000 to 80,000. The Georgian community is considered to be aligned with Mizrachi in Israel.
The history of the Jews in Ecuador dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Sephardic Jews began arriving from Spain and Portugal as a result of the Spanish Inquisition. Ecuadorian Jews are members of a small Jewish community in the territory of today's Ecuador, and they form one of the smallest Jewish communities in South America.
Argentine Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Argentine Jewish community who now reside within the state of Israel. Argentine Jewish immigration to Israel has been, and still is, the largest and most significant migratory flow from South America. This is because Argentina has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, the third largest in the Americas after those in the United States and Canada, and seventh worldwide. Because of this, many Jewish Argentines are able to make aliyah and become Israeli citizens through the Law of Return. The Argentine community in Israel is about 50,000 people, although some estimates put the figure at 70,000, making it one of the fastest-growing groups in the country.
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.
Russians in Israel or Russian Israelis are post-Soviet Russian citizens who immigrate to Israel and their descendants. As of 2022, Russian-speakers number around 1,300,000 people, or 15% of the Israeli population. This number, however, also includes immigrants from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states other than Russia proper.
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.
The history of the Jews in Peru begins with the arrival of migration flows from Europe, Near East and Northern Africa.