Tag Archives: Conversos

Jew of the Week: Segundo Villaneuva

Prophet of the Andes

Segundo Zerubbabel Tzidkiya Villaneuva (1927-2008) was born in a small village in the Andes Mountains of Peru to a Catholic family. When he was 21, his father was murdered and Villaneuva discovered a Bible while going through his father’s things. He started reading the Bible and going to church regularly. However, as he went deeper into his studies, he found no good answers to his questions. He was puzzled by Christian observance of the Sabbath on Sunday instead of Saturday, as the Torah clearly commands. Villaneuva soon became a Seventh-Day Adventist. But the problems and inconsistencies persisted. He learned Hebrew and began reading Scripture in the original language. He then discovered that Christians had mistranslated the Torah to suit their needs, and twisted what the Tanakh really said about the concept of Mashiach, the messiah. After many years, Villaneuva decided to convert to Judaism. He started his own congregation with a group of like-minded individuals, called Bnei Moshe. The movement grew to some 500 individuals, many of whom also found out that they actually had Jewish ancestors—Sephardic Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity during the Inquisition (called Anusim or Conversos). It took many years, but in August of 1989 a delegation of Israeli rabbis came to Peru and converted Villaneuva and 160 others. Villanueva took on the Hebrew name “Zerubbabel Tzidkiya”. The following year, he made aliyah with a large group of Bnei Moshe. This motivated two more groups of Peruvians to convert to Judaism and make aliyah, including the Bnei Abraham and the Inca Jews. Villaneuva’s story inspired countless others in Latin America to convert to Judaism or explore their Sephardic Jewish ancestry. It is estimated that there are now some 60 communities in 14 countries across Latin America that have returned to Judaism. Villaneuva passed away in Israel and was buried on the Mount of Olives. He has been called “The Prophet of the Andes”.

Video: A Kabbalistic History of the World

Words of the Week

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and… no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees… Other nations, when victorious on the battlefield, dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.
– Eric Hoffer

Jew of the Week: Judah the Faithful

The Church’s Greatest “Heretic”

Lope de Vera y Alarcon (c. 1619-1644) was born to the Spanish nobility in San Clemente, Spain. Despite being a Christian knight, de Vera wished to learn Hebrew and study the Bible in its original language. He enrolled at the University of Salamanca at 14. His studies drew him to Judaism, and at just 20 years old, he rejected the New Testament and his old Christian faith. The Inquisition immediately arrested him and threw him in prison. He refused to eat their non-kosher meat. His trial lasted for over a year, in which he continually affirmed that Judaism is the only true faith. Soon, de Vera formally converted to Judaism, circumcised himself with a bone knife, and took on the name Juda el Creyente, “Judah the Faithful” or “Judah the Believer”. His imprisonment lasted six years, during which time many priests and missionaries tried to win him back. Instead, he managed to convince at least a couple of them to abandon their Christianity, too! The frustrated Inquisition had enough and sentenced him to execution. He was burned at the stake on July 25, 1644. His final words were reportedly a verse from King David’s Psalms: “Into Your hand, Lord, I commit my spirit.” Despite his apostasy, one Inquisitor wrote of him: “Never has such firmness been witnessed as that displayed by this young man. He was well reared, scholarly, and otherwise blameless.” Another Inquisitor declared that “de Vera was the Church’s greatest heretic”. At the time, his story inspired and strengthened Jews all over the world, and caused countless Marranos (Spanish Jews forced to convert to Christianity) to return to their faith. Today, many Spanish and Portuguese people are rediscovering their Sephardic Jewish roots and converting back to Judaism, and see Judah the Faithful as a role model and hero.

‘The Spanish Inquisition Tribunal’, by Francisco Goya

Growing Number of Latin Americans Turn to Judaism

Intriguing Stories of Latinos Converting to Judaism

Words of the Week

Our Sages taught: Those who are insulted but do not insult others, who hear their shame but do not respond, who act out of love and are joyful in their suffering, about them the verse states: “And they that love Him are as the sun going forth in its might.” (Judges 5:31)
– Talmud, Gittin 36b

Jew of the Week: Moses Cohen Henriques

The Jewish Pirate Who Conquered Brazil

Moses Cohen Henriques (b. 1595) was born to a family of Sephardic Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. The family eventually made their way to Amsterdam and returned to their Jewish faith. Henriques joined the Dutch navy, and rose up through the ranks to be the right-hand man of famed Dutch admiral Piet Hein. Together, they defeated the Spanish fleet off the coast of Cuba in 1628. Following this, Henriques went to scout the Portuguese colony of Pernambuco, Brazil as a spy, to prepare for a Dutch invasion. He was part of that invasion in 1630, leading a contingent of 3000 men to successfully capture the colony. Henriques helped to turn the area into a Jewish refuge, bringing in America’s first rabbi, and establishing the first synagogue, mikveh, and yeshiva in the New World. When the Portuguese recaptured the colony in 1654 and restarted persecution of Jews, Henriques fled along with the rest of the Jewish community. To survive harsh times, he was forced to become a pirate, soon joining the infamous Henry Morgan. He became Sir Morgan’s trusted advisor. Henriques later ventured on his own, establishing a pirate island off the Brazilian coast. The Inquisition sought to capture him for years, unsuccessfully, and Henriques saw it as his mission to avenge the evil that the Spanish and Portuguese had done to the Jews. After the English conquered Jamaica, Henriques settled there and lived out the rest of his life on the island, helping to establish its Jewish community. When his old friend Henry Morgan became Jamaica’s governor, he gave Henriques a full pardon for piracy in 1681.

Illustration depicting the burning of Jews at the stake, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)

Words of the Week

The Jews are our chief supplyers in Barbadoes, and would sell very cheap, and give one not seldom two years to pay, by which credit the poorer sort of planter did wonderfully improve their condition.
– Sir Thomas Modyford (d. 1679), English governor of Barbados and Jamaica

*The biography above is adapted from Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, by Ed Kritzler.