Film looks at Italian Catholics' conversion to Judaism Can a
people’s history be lost over time or can it live on in the soil
of the land and the blood of the people? This is the question
that the documentary film The Mystery of San Nicandro, airing
Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. on CBC’s documentary channel, attempts to
answer. The “mystery” in question is the fairly well documented
story of a group of Italian Catholic peasants in a small,
isolated community in southern Italy who converted to Judaism in
the 1920s without ever having laid eyes on a Jew. These converts
were under the spell of a Rasputin-like charismatic healer,
Donato Manduzio. Returning home to San Nicandro crippled after
World War 1, Manduzio claimed to have visions from God and that
he had been called like Moses to revive a faith that had long
since disappeared. Manduzio introduced dietary laws and worship
of the Sabbath to his community. At the time, because of its
isolation, they weren’t even aware that other Jews existed
anywhere else in the world. A