JTA
An unlikely mass conversion in Peru gets a closer look in new book about ‘Bnei Moshe’ Jews
Philissa Cramer
August 5, 2022

The 1981 winner of Peru’s competition of Israel’s International Bible Contest did not come from among the country’s many devoted Christians nor from Lima’s elite Jewish school. Instead, the top prize went to Victor Chico, a self-taught man in his thirties who practiced Judaism with a small sect of Peruvian natives led by a man named Segundo Villanueva. Spurred initially by Villanueva’s searching for truth as a religious Christian, the group had adopted Jewish practices and beliefs, celebrated holidays and even hired a doctor to circumcise the men. READ MORE