This Monday the newly elected president of Argentina, Javier Milei, traveled to the United States where he will have meetings at the White House, the State Department, the Treasury and the International Monetary Fund. However, his first visit was to the tomb of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, better known as the Lubavitch Rebbe, an influential rabbi who died in 1994. Since then, his tomb is visited annually by thousands of people and became a place of pilgrimage. being a recognizable Jewish personality. Last July, before the primaries, Milei made a quick trip to visit this same place.
As the years went by, Milei began to approach Judaism and revealed that he studied the Torah exhaustively and was evaluating the possibility of becoming a Jew. “I am thinking about converting to Judaism and I aspire to become the first Jewish president in Argentine history,” she declared in an Argentine media. In September of this year, two months before he was elected President, he confirmed the determination: “I don’t go to church, I go to the temple. I have a primary rabbi and I study the Torah. I am recognized internationally as a friend of Israel. I am After being a Jew, all I need is the blood pact.”
Last Saturday the “lion” participated in a Jewish ceremony and received the blessing of renowned Rabbi David Pinto Shlita, who that night led the Havdalah, a traditional ceremony separating Shabbat from the rest of the days of the week. Milei’s collaborators noted that it was “a special, symbolic and very nice moment.” The ceremony was held in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Once and Karina Milei, sister and head of the presidential campaign of the libertarian liberal, also participated, who was visibly excited during the meeting.
“I celebrate this beautiful country, Argentina, and I ask God to protect the Argentine Nation so that it returns to what it was before. I am sure that with the help of God you will help the Nation and, with the people of Argentina , you will make it,” was Rabbi Pinto’s speech. With tears in her eyes and while both held a cane with both hands, Milei thanked him in English under the attentive gaze of her sister: “Thank you, thank you, rabbin.” In the images, Milei was seen wearing a black kippah, totally excited.
