End of Peru-An amazing Bar Mitzvah and Conversions

Sunday August 21^st 2011

The last few days have been extremely overwhelming and beautiful. After my 18 hour bus, Friday was jam-packed. In the morning, we converted 4 people. Two women, Yesenia and Yelitza, one man, Miguel “Mikhael”, and a two year-old, Angelito. We had a beit-din for the 3 adult conversions–one at a time. It consisted of me and Rabbi Tarlow and the community leader Juan. For Yelitza, Juan’s girlfriend, we didn’t allow Juan to be on the beit din and switched him with another already converted male, Miguel.  It was essentially a private interview/test in which we went around in a circle asking them questions. We wanted to make sure that they were giving up Catholicism, but that since their parents and families are still Catholics, that they continue to respect their families in order to maintain shalom bayit.  We asked them about particular Jewish traditions and holidays that they had studied and had found meaningful.  We also asked them about Jewish marriage, raising Jewish children, and continuing to attend the Friday night services and promising us that they would continue to study Judaism with all of the resources I had brought them. Rather than intimidate them with obscure ancient Jewish history questions, we wanted to give them the chance to expound on more open ended questions, while still making sure they had been studying.  Each beit din lasted about half an hour, after which we rented a minivan to head to the mikvah, the ritual bath of flowing water.

 

 The three new converts (sans the baby)

 

Me, Rabbi Tarlow, and Juan signing the conversion documents

The community somehow found a hidden freshwater river, 40 minutes from Huanuco by car, in a remote gorge. About 4 years ago, when they started converting, they claimed that area as their mikvah, demarking it by writing “Shalom” on a large stone. The two women went ahead with another women witness in order to avoid an uncomfortable situation with me and the Rabbi.  They were instructed to say the blessing over the immersion. We followed suite with Miguel “Mikhael.” Finally, Angelito, the baby, was sick and happened to be petrified by water, and wouldn’t enter the river. (We also decided it would be dangerous for him to fully immerse.) So we did a makeshift mikvah for him and dumped water on him three times. When he’s older, hopefully he will have overcome his fear of water, and he’ll immerse himself more properly.

The mikvah where the word Shalom is wearing away

Returning to the synagogue, we signed the documents of conversion, and prepared for Rolo’s bar mitzvah. Realizing that there would be several people who couldn’t make it, due to the Huayco that had delayed our arrival, we were praying for a minyan on Friday night. We decided to do the whole Bar Mitzvah on Friday night, and not set ourselves up for failure on Saturday morning when we wouldn’t have a minyan.  The Bar Mitzvah consisted of Rolo and I leading a Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv, an abbreviated torah service in which Rolo read 8 verses from the original 1870 Torah scroll, Rolo’s Bar Mitzvah sermon, and some words about Rolo from Rabbi Tarlow. We were perhaps 15 people altogether, but 5 of them were Rolo’s non-Jewish family members. (Rolo and his grandmother converted by choice several years ago, but his mother, stepfather, and step siblings are still practicing Catholics.) Nonetheless, this was the first and last time we had a minyan in my 5 weeks in Huanuco.

As Rolo read the Torah, the Rabbi and I helped him with a few words here and there. Rolo really made me proud as he read “Vehaya ekev tishmun et hamishpatim haele...” that we had practiced so many times. It was clear that in my 2 week absence in Cusco, he had practiced. I looked at the audience and saw some of them tearing up. They were so proud. For every single Peruvian in that room, this was the first Bar Mitzvah they had ever attended. It was the first Bar Mitzvah in Huanuco in over 100 years.  Rabbi Tarlow gave a speech about continuity of tradition and the beauty of reading the Torah and what it meant for the community to be continuing in the footsteps of their ancestors. If you would isolate the speech from the community’s circumstances, it would have been kind of sappy, but together with the difficult history of the Huanuco Jewish community, it was beautifully moving.  And throughout the speech, Rolo was beaming in a way I’d never seen before. It was amazing.

We moved to the dining room and went around the table, where everyone had to say something special for Rolo. One old fellow, Shanti, broke into tears while talking about how Rolo is the future of Judaism in Huanuco.  I’m still not sure what exactly he said that made in bawl but he spoke with such emotion. It was like a chain reaction and I couldn’t hold back my tears.

The next morning, the community, Rabbi Tarlow, and I had a “Come to Jesus meeting” aka a chizzuk meeting to help get their act together. The most important things we discussed were how the community needed to choose a denomination to belong to and couldn’t just pick certain customs that they like (women not counting in minyan, but only keeping Biblical kashrut.)  We also talked about how they should take a step back from practicing to read Hebrew and focus on the traditions, holidays, and Jewish philosophy, because they still have a lot to learn and Hebrew doesn’t do much if you’re lacking other essentials in Judaism. Other important ideas that circulated the meetings were adding more Spanish to the Friday night services and making sure that there was more balance in leadership between the different community members, because frankly if Juan were to die or disappear, the community would essentially just cease to be.  The meeting was extremely productive.

Finally I’m heading home to New York for the first time in forever, proud of what the Jewish community in Huanuco was able to achieve this summer, and hoping that they continue to maintain their pride in Judaism.