THE PROPHET OF THE ANDES

One man’s road to Judaism in Peru.

Journalist and educator Mochkofsky, a contributing writer for the New Yorker, chronicles the inspiring, sometimes astonishing tale of Segundo Villanueva (1927-2008), whose spiritual journey and personal magnetism made him the center of an extremely dedicated group of followers from the 1960s until his death. Finding a Bible in a trunk he had inherited, at a time when the Catholic Church deeply discouraged Bible use by laity, Villanueva read the book with fervor, finding great inconsistencies between what the church taught and what the Scriptures presented. His conversational and questioning nature caused a small group of family and friends to follow his leadership in looking for a church home that would more closely align with their findings in Scripture. Initially called the Assemblyists, they aligned with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church for a time but eventually parted ways. Pushing deep into the Amazonian jungle, they set up a village where they could live in community without the oversight of outside religious leaders. As he continued to immerse himself in biblical study, Villanueva rejected Christian teachings altogether and decided that he and his followers were, in fact, Jews, a decision that led to splintering within the community. In 1986, “they drafted the new organization’s founding document” and changed their name to Children of Moses (Bnei Moshe). They embarked on the lengthy process of being officially recognized as converted Jews and moving to Israel. Though some members of the organization managed to immigrate, they found life in Israel to be fraught with problems of its own. Readers will be swept up in this story of one man’s unshakeable quest for truth and the people who followed him through every obstacle, from poverty to jungle predators to Israeli bureaucracy.

At times inspiring, at times heartbreaking, this account of a small Jewish community is always engrossing.