He is a mensch.
Argentina’s new president is a long-time public admirer of Israel and the Jewish people, and has close ties to the Big Apple’s Hasidic community.
Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina this week in a surprising surprise. The libertarian firebrand has made headlines for promising to defeat the South American nation’s socialism and for a colorful past that includes a stint as a tantric sex teacher.
In September, just months before his election, Milei, 53, who is Catholic, traveled to New York City, where he met with top Hasidic Jewish leaders in Brooklyn and Queens.
“In my conversation with Mr. Milei, it was clear that he was genuinely inspired by the teachings of Judaism,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, an official at Chabad, a Hasidic Jewish organization in New York. Kotlarsky met with the incoming leader in New York earlier this year. “I found him very sincere, and it was that sincerity and deep spiritual conviction that brought him to New York for a moving day of prayer.”
The new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, poses with Chabad Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky.Facebook Mendy Kotlarsky
On the same trip, Milei made a pilgrimage to Queens to visit Ohel, the tomb of Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
The Rebbe, who died in 1994, is one of the most influential rabbis in modern history and his tomb is visited each year by hundreds of thousands of people of all religions.
“There is a book that contains the Rebbe’s teachings. They usually give you that book,” Milei said in an undated television clip during her presidential campaign. “I had the opportunity, the honor, to meet one of those rabbis who wrote those teachings and I had the privilege of having him give me that book and sign it.”
The new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, greets Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky.Facebook Mendy Kotlarsky
Milei was alluding to another meeting during the same visit to New York with Chabad Rabbi Simon Jacobson, who had been a close associate of Schneerson and had been among several high-ranking officials who would reproduce the Rebbe’s Shabbat speeches from memory, as there was no writing or audio. The use of equipment was allowed during the weekly celebration.
“You should have seen his eyes light up, he was absolutely fascinated by the process of remembering and this was all documented in a book,” Jacobson said in a YouTube video describing the moment and congratulating Milei. “Her enthusiasm touched me.”
The new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has said that his first international visit will be to Israel.NurPhoto via Getty Images
In other television appearances, Milei has boasted of preferring synagogues to churches and of preferring to receive guidance from a rabbi rather than a priest.
Although he was raised Catholic, Milei has often clashed with Pope Francis, whom he has called an “imbecile” and a “son of a bitch who preaches communism.” He has publicly reflected on converting to Judaism.
Milei has promised to visit Israel on his first trip abroad and, following the United States, move his nation’s embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
And he often quotes Torah verses while discussing economic theory and has blown a traditional Jewish shofar at political events. He has studied Jewish texts in close collaboration with his friend Argentine rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish, Haaetz reported.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn