Yesterday, forty-Eight Peruvian Jews arrived in Israel and moved directly into their new homes in the Gush Etzion towns of Alon Shvut and Carmei Tzur. The new olim (immigrants) who had lived in a village near Peru’s capital Lima, had all converted to Judaism last December in a mass conversion carried out under the auspices of Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yisrael Meir Lau. Members of the group have told reporters that they came to Israel as a religious duty and to Gush Etzion, specifically, out of their conviction that all of the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.
Rabbi Lau had sent a delegation, including a conversion court (beit din) to Peru to investigate the matter of the group’s immigration to Israel. The delegation discovered that the community had been living a Jewish life for years, making their conversion a relatively simple affair. A second group of Peruvian Jews from the same village is scheduled to arrive in Israel next week.
Rabbi Lau had sent a delegation, including a conversion court (beit din) to Peru to investigate the matter of the group’s immigration to Israel. The delegation discovered that the community had been living a Jewish life for years, making their conversion a relatively simple affair. A second group of Peruvian Jews from the same village is scheduled to arrive in Israel next week.