The Marrano Who Found a Lost Israelite Tribe in the Colonial Andes

In the 17th century, a Portuguese Catholic of Jewish ancestry named Antonio de Montezinos described an encounter with a group of indigenous Andeans descended from the tribe of Reuben, one of the “lost tribes” exiled by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. These Reubenites were fierce warriors who had fended off persecution at the hands of their neighbors. In conversation with Nachi Weinstein, Ronnie Perelis recounts Montezinos’s life story, which involved travels across the globe and imprisonment by the Inquisition, and the new life given to his account by the 17th-century Dutch Jewish thinker Menasseh ben Israel. (Audio, 68 minutes.)