By Andrew Tarica, Special to JTNews
Part 1 of Star of the Jungle appeared in the March 7, 2003 edition of the Jewish Transcript.
The motorcarro driver dropped me off early Sunday morning down a ramshackle dirt road, and I wondered if I was at the right place. I saw a man walk by and asked him, “Donde está la casa del hombre Judio?”
He smiled and led me down the street, where another man had now emerged and was waving at me.
“Hola,” he said and introduced himself as Ronald Levy. He had warm, sad brown eyes, ruffled black hair and a stocky build.
We shook hands, then walked through a gate into his property, a virtual oasis among the squalor of Iquitos’s outskirts. Neither large nor regal, his home was similar to most of the other modest houses in town. But Levy’s garden, made up of plants and fruits, all native to the Amazon, was incredible.
There were five kinds of cocoa trees, white and orange toe plants, coffee plants, maracuya, guava, grapefruit, black and yellow bananas, rubber trees, yarina palms, chiope, peppers, melons, cassava, coconut palms, a tiny stream choked with giant Amazon water lillies and paiche fish.
We grabbed a couple of chairs and sat under the shade of a palm tree. Levy — who had carved a blue menorah and Star of David onto his white, wooden front door — told me about his family history.
His grandfather was born in Tangiers, Morocco, but traveled to the Amazon during the rubber boom. “My mother was born in a small town on the Ucayali River,” he said.
Levy explained that the community had hit a critical juncture by the late 1980s, long after the rubber boom ended, when most original Jewish settlers had gone back to Morocco, and it appeared the community would die out completely. “How do you say in English? Extinction.”
To help save the community, Levy jumpstarted a “conversion” open to anyone with Jewish roots who lived along the river. Three rabbis flew in from Chicago, New York and Santiago to perform the aliyah ritual.
The rabbis performed the mikveh — or ritual immersions — on a winter day in the Moche River. Couples were married according to Jewish law, and in 1989 the first contingent of Iquitos Jews emigrated to Israel, thus creating a new “tribe” from Peru.
Levy believes Israel offers a better future in a “young country, strong country, with new ideas.”
He estimated that there are about 80 Jews left in Iquitos and another 40 or so who live in surrounding villages like Santa Maria de Nueva. They are among the poorest people in Peru’s most destitute region.
“The Jews on the river live in very poor economic conditions,” said Levy. “They feel Jewish, but they know nothing about being Jewish” because they have little access to books and literature. “The most important thing for them now is to get a Jewish education, and then get to Israel.”
Levy hopes to send his four sons to Israel as well; his oldest boy will soon join the Israeli Army. Levy’s father will remain in Iquitos, however, where the community has its own problems.
“We need to rebuild the Jewish cemetery,” said Levy, shaking his head. “Some people broke in and stole the marble headstones, which were materials imported from Europe many years ago. We had a project going, but it was stopped because we didn’t have enough money.”
Currently each member of Iquitos’s congregation donates five Peruvian soles per month to help maintain the cemetery. In U.S. currency, that’s $1.50.
After the interview, Levy gave me a walking tour of his garden. “It’s all organic,” he said, sipping a glass of fresh fruit juice, “because God doesn’t like preservatives.”
He plucked a green cocoa pod off a small tree, handed it to me, and I sucked the white juices off the pit, nature’s very own chocolate. It was delicious, better than any Jewish dessert from back home (sorry, Mom).
Walking in his garden was like wandering through a jungle diorama at the Museum of Natural History, and it was no surprise to hear how this South American sanctuary was shared by exotic birds like scarlet macaws and toucans, and animals such as spider monkeys. The garden was quintessentially Amazon, except for one lonely plant.
“I have one plant from Israel — a desert plant. They refer to it in the Bible as the ‘big red fruits,’” said Levy, admiring the short stubby plant, whose seeds were sent by his brother from Israel.
“I think it’s doing pretty well in the Amazon.”
For more information on the Iquitos Jewish community, contact: Morona 1112, Iquitos, Peru, Communidad Israelita De Iquitos, Señora Elizabeth Kohn.