Last December, two days after assuming office as Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei attended a Chabad Hanukkah menorah lighting in Buenos Aires. The next day, Argentinian media was full of images of the president wearing a kippah, a rabbi by his side, reaching out to light a candle.
Although raised Catholic, the president has been enthusiastic about his love of Judaism. He has studied the Torah with a local rabbi, saying it helps guide his economic principles. It is reported that he wants to convert. In his inauguration speech, Milei spoke to the nation from the balcony of the presidential palace like a rabbi delivering his sermon: “It is no
coincidence that this inauguration takes place during the holiday of Hanukkah. The Maccabean War is the symbol of the triumph of the weak over the mighty, of the few over the many, of light over darkness and, above all, of truth over lies.” He was greeted with raucous applause. After decades of economic failure and with inflation out of control, Argentinians are hoping for a miracle.
The president has been labelled a far-right nationalist and anarcho-capitalist, is against abortion and is a climate change denier. He has claimed he was a tantric sex coach and is known to ask his dead dog for political advice. At election rallies, he frequently wielded a chainsaw to promote his sweeping austerity measures. Now, with less than two years of political experience, Milei finds himself at the helm of a vast country in an economic crisis that has driven 40 percent of its people into poverty.
Many Argentinian Jews view Milei’s promotion of Judaism as a ‘kiddush hashem’ – a positive reflection on the Jewish people and their values. In Córdoba, Argentina’s second largest city, Chabad Rabbi Yossi Turk praised Milei’s championing of the religion: “Overnight he awakened an interest in Judaism in the whole country… Every TV channel, radio and newspaper, has articles about Chabad.” Over empanadas and kugel at Shabbat dinner, Rabbi Shlomo Libedinsky of the Sephardi Orthodox Synagogue in Córdoba said: “If the president thinks that Jewish culture and values and Torah is something that is worth his time then that’s good.”
Milei’s vocal support for Israel has reassured many in the diaspora: he has challenged the mild response of the previous government, under Alberto Fernández, to the 7 October attacks, and expressed an intention to move the Argentinian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Until recently, Argentinian Jews could not have imagined such positive attention from national political figures. After World War II, Argentina provided shelter to Nazi war criminals evading prosecution (including, most notably, Adolf Eichmann, a key figure in the implementation of the ‘Final Solution’). The military dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s persecuted Jews in numbers disproportionate to the general population. In the 1990s, two terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires, on the AMIA Jewish community centre and the Israeli embassy, killed 114 people.
“Argentinian society now is very Jewish friendly,” said Marcos Horenstein, former president of the Jewish community in Mendoza, Argentina’s fourth largest city. “Milei said that he loved Judaism before he became president. And Jews voted for him.”
Not all Argentinian Jews are sanguine about an association with Milei. Before the election, thousands of Jews signed a letter stating that Milei “doesn’t represent us”.
Their concerns are two-fold. Firstly, if Milei’s government fails to resurrect Argentina’s economy, Jews may be blamed. Already, a prominent politician has accused Milei of being inspired by the Andinia plan, a conspiracy theory that alleges a plan to establish a Jewish state in large parts of Argentina and Chile.
“Many Jews voted for Milei because he is so pro-Israel,” said Yasmin Garfunkel, a young Jewish musician in Buenos Aires “And people were tired of the corruption and poverty that had gone beforehand. But Milei is not the person to solve that.”
Many Jews are also worried about Milei’s nationalist politics. He has issued an emergency decree empowering him to bypass Congress, where his party holds only 15 percent of seats, in order to issue major economic reforms. His vice-president, Victoria Villaruel, has been accused of denying the crimes of the brutal military dictatorship of 50 years ago. Milei also drew ire from Jewish groups in December for appointing Rodolfo Barra as his solicitor general – a man who previously had to resign from a political post and publicly apologise due to his past links with neo-Nazism. “If I was a Nazi, I regret it,” Barra said in 1994.
“[It’s] uncomfortable,” Horenstein admits, “but unfortunately, we are put in a situation [in which] our new allies are the right wing. That’s the reality now.”
It is hard to watch Milei’s interview with US TV news pundit Tucker Carlson – in which he claims, almost in the same breath, that human-made climate change is “part of the socialist agenda” and that Jews are going to the Wailing Wall to pray for him – without feeling a sense of unease.
As Argentinian Jews spun their dreidels last December, they hoped that Milei would work an economic miracle. Yet, despite their president’s love for Judaism and its symbols, many Jews will be wondering if this might turn out to be an unholy alliance.
By Joshua Korber Hoffman
Header photo: Protest against Javier Milei’s policies, Rosario, Argentina, 2024 © Alamy
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