(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)November 9, 2009

MAHWAH – Lorry Salcedo-Mitrani, filmmaker and photographer, screened and led a discussion of his film “The Fire Within” at Ramapo College of New Jersey on November 9. The talk was sponsored by the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Ramapo College’s Latin American Studies Convening Group, the Communication Arts Major, with the support of the Office of Student Affairs Platinum Series.

A moving documentary that is a reflection of the survival of spirit, belief, and heritage, “The Fire Within” is the story of the unique Jewish community of Iquitos, Peru. In the late 19th century, among the adventurers who came to the Amazonian rainforest following the great rubber boom, were Jewish men from Morocco. Some of these men settled in the isolated town of Iquitos. There, they married indigenous women, raised families, and maintained names such as Cohen, Pinto, and Khan. Their original Jewish traditions became mixed with indigenous Amazonian life creating a culture of their own.

Following the “discovery” of the Iquitos Jewish community, interested and well-meaning rabbis and scholars have become instrumental in their “return” to a more normative Jewish tradition. In the face of the reluctance the Jewish community in the capital city of Lima to recognize them as their own, a group of Iquitos Jews has undergone a process of conversion, and many have immigrated to Israel. Others have remained in or returned to Iquitos in the hope of helping the community flourish and grow.

Lorry Salcedo-Mitrani was born on the north coast of Peru. He is trained both as a photographer (at the International Center of Photography in New York) and as a filmmaker (at Newsreel, New York University and Armando Robles Academy in Peru).

Salcedo-Mitrani has exhibited his work in 15 solo exhibits and 11 group shows, received several awards and fellowships for his work, and been the subject of two books.

Among the institutions that have his photographs in their collections are Yale University, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Stanford University and the Museum of African-American Life and Culture.

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