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. The first 98 new immigrants, 18 families, have emigrated to Israel in 2010, and settled in
Beer Sheva and
Ramla. Another 150 immigrants came to Israel from Peru during 2013 - 2014 and they were mostly settled in Ramla. there were more formal converts in Iquitos willing to move to Israel, but their applications stayed unprocessed for unknown reasons.
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. 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. ==Other==