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
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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.




bonus digital content
Photos by Jacob Kessler andf Ariel Kadosh
A small town in Peru has become a hotspot for vacationing Israelis in search of spirituality.

“So I came to the Sacred Valley to try San Pedro
but I stayed because there is a community of
people working on themselves spiritually,” he added.

“There’s a lot of magic here.”
Shvat, who comes from a family of rabbis, settled in
Pisac and opened a restaurant to serve as a gathering
place for Jewish travelers. He organizes Shabbat
dinners occasionally frequented by non-Jewish
locals. Rabbi Ariel Kadosh, the 25-year-old leader of
Chabad Pisac and a former student at Chabad
Cusco, had originally wanted to open up a branch of
Chabad in Morocco with his wife, Talia.

“At first, I had never heard of Pisac,” Kadosh said.

“But after arriving here, we realized that people
come to Pisac for spiritual experiences … so I think
it’s a really good place for a Chabad.”
Kadosh disagrees with those who try to connect
with spirituality through psychedelic substances,
but he does welcome the opportunity to speak with
travelers about God and other spiritual topics after
they have a psychedelic journey.

He told a story of a spiritual seeker who wrote to
the Lubavitcher Rebbe asking about the permissibil-
ity of using LSD as a means to connect with God. In
response, the Rebbe said that the “Jewish way” is to
attain spiritual heights through struggle.

“For me, specifically, I don’t think it’s right,” Kadosh
said about the use of psychedelics. “The Rebbe says
it is not our way.”
Despite the town’s peaceful facade, not every-
one is happy with the influx of Israelis. Some locals
expressed frustration with the young Israeli travelers,
who they claim try to haggle excessively when buying
things. Aminadav pointed to another phenomenon.

“On the corner of the street, I put a sign in Hebrew
for my restaurant,” says Aminadav. “And someone
put a sticker of the Palestinian flag with the words
‘Israel, killer state.’”
Although the Schneerson stickers outnumber the
ones with the Palestinian flag, the latter can also be
found throughout the town.

Then last week, reports of a violent attack inside
the Chabad house circulated on social media. In
a post in a community Facebook group, someone
accused a Chabad student of attacking a woman and
threatening her with a blade. Comments on this post
ranged from disbelief to statements such as: “Isn’t
that what they do in Palestine every day?”
The Chabad leaders claimed that a drunken local
couple entered the building at 2 a.m. and started to
make antisemitic comments, adding that the student
was simply defending himself. Local police said that
neither side had reported the incident in the end.

The new Chabad leaders aren't deterred by the
recent tensions. Kadosh said that he plans on teach-
ing Kabbalah classes on the roof of the new Chabad
building and also wants to host nigun sessions,
which involve chanting spiritual Chasidic melodies.

After working with Israelis for more than 30 years,
Sergio Quispe Maita can understand “70 to 80%
of Hebrew.” He began learning the language while
working as a cook at an Israeli restaurant in Cusco
called Nargila. He now he converses in Hebrew at his
own Israeli restaurant in Pisac called Nafis.

Maita’s restaurant is attached to Colores Hostel,
one of the most popular hostels in Pisac for young
Israelis — to the extent that some in town have even
labeled it the “Israeli hostel.” So the local restaura-
teur has daily opportunities to practice his Hebrew.

“Thank God, I speak the language, so I understand
them,” he said. “And I know that with time, Pisac will
be filled with many more Israelis because it is a small
town and is very attractive to people looking to enjoy
the quiet.” ■
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