Nine year-old Meir Perez, wearing tsitsit, bicycles down the alley behind his home in Trujillo, Peru. Meir’s parents, community president Nilo Perez and Yona Perez, have practiced Judaism since before Meir’s birth. Judaism is the only religion young Meir has ever known.

In the fall of 2001, with the help of Scattered Among the Nations leaders, a panel of visiting Orthodox rabbis formally converted the Perez family to Judaism. In 2002, the family immigrated to Israel in a group of 84 Inca Jews. Approximately 180 Inca Jews remain in Peru, awaiting the same opportunity.

back