feature
Israelis Flock to This
Tiny Town in Peru
for Vacation—and Psychedelic Spirituality
Jacob Kessler | JTA.org
P ISAC, Peru — About 20 miles northeast of the
tourist capital of Cusco, the small Peruvian
town of Pisac sits nestled among the verdant
Andes Mountains. Lined with cobblestone streets and
two-story adobe houses, the town offers a distinct
blend of ancient Incan culture and breathtaking
landscapes. Pisac’s main square, Plaza de Armas, is often filled
with Indigenous women pulling alpacas, local art
dealers selling their handmade artisanal wares and
kids playing soccer — nothing out of the ordinary for
a tourist town in the Andes. But directly across from
the plaza’s church, a recent addition to the square
stands out.

A yellow flag with a blue crown is draped over the
banister of one of the two-story buildings flanking the
square, reading “Mashiach” — “Messiah” in Hebrew.

The flag marks the building as an outpost of the
Chasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which has
placed emissaries in dozens of countries. Opened
in April, the Pisac outpost is Chabad’s third in Peru,
after Lima and Cusco. Leaders of Chabad Cusco
decided to send an emissary to open a branch
in Pisac because of a trend that locals here have
noticed over the past few years: the town’s popularity
with Israeli tourists.

In Pisac, Hebrew is often heard more consistently
on the streets than English or Quechua, the most
widely spoken of Peru’s indigenous languages. The
local Chabad rabbi said that 50-100 people pack his
16 JUNE 8, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Shabbat services every week. Multiple restaurants
have translated their menus into Hebrew. Dozens
of yellow stickers are scattered around the town
of around 10,000 featuring the face of the Chabad
movement’s former leader, Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, commonly known as the Lubavitcher
Rebbe. “I love it here,” said Liad Shor, a 26-year-old Israeli
who has been in Pisac for more than a month. “Pisac
is a very known place for Israelis to travel, so I
wanted to check how it is.”
The town is increasingly becoming a part of
the “Hummus Trail,” an informal route that many
young Israelis follow after completing their
mandatory army service. Functioning through word
of mouth, the Hummus Trail referred to places in
Southeast Asia, but in recent years it was applied
to regions of Latin America, too. Various stops
across South America have become so popular with
Israelis that locals have started to cater specifically
to them.

But Pisac is not only a layover for young Israeli
tourists looking for a few days of peace and
quiet. Many slightly older Israelis, attracted to the
spirituality infused in everyday life in Pisac — often
involving locally-grown psychedelic substances —
have chosen to call Pisac their permanent home.

Nitzan Levy, a 30-year-old Israeli from the
Jerusalem area, is among the dozens of Israelis —
possibly hundreds — who have moved to Pisac and
the wider Sacred Valley region as an escape from
Israeli society.

“I’m making up data, but it’s like 80% of Israelis
are living with post-traumatic stress,” Levy said. “I
mean, it’s a tough environment to live in when you’re
constantly in survival mode. So, living in alternative
communities like here, or also like in Costa Rica,
or in Guatemala or in Thailand … you can get away
from the intensity of it all and find your own healing.

Because all of us have experienced war in some way
or other and we need to heal as a society, but we
cannot do it in Israel yet.”
The “healing” Nitzan refers to often comes in
the form of what locals label “planta medicina,” or
psychedelics such as ayahuasca and San Pedro. For
visitors from around the world, not only Israelis, Pisac
has become a haven for those who wish to have an
encounter with these plants, which can temporarily
alter one’s state of reality and heighten one’s senses.

It is legal here to partake in plant medicine ceremo-
nies, and many decide to do so to heal childhood
trauma, cure deeply-rooted addictions or attempt to
have an encounter with the divine.

Aminadav Shvat, a 36-year-old Israeli, also
decided to settle in Pisac for the spirituality and plant
medicine he found here. He was drawn to San Pedro,
a psychedelic cactus indigenous to the Andes. He
spoke while wearing tefillin from inside an Israeli
restaurant he opened up in Pisac last year.

“When we try some psychedelics, we actually find
a connection very similar to Moshe Rabbeinu with
the sneh,” Shvat said, referring to the biblical story
of Moses and the burning bush. “We strengthen the
connection between humans and God.”
Photo by Jacob Kessler
Pisac sits in the Andes Mountains, 20 miles outside of Cusco.