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There are plenty of right-wing populist leaders around the world who support the Jewish state of Israel despite not being Jewish themselves. Think of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu who has described himself as a defender of Christianity, or even former president Donald Trump, who wrote last year that he could “easily” be Israel’s prime minister despite his Presbyterian background.
But Javier Milei, Argentina’s new leader after a speedy political rise, goes far beyond that. The Argentine president, despite being raised Catholic, claims to have been a student of the Jewish Torah for the last few years. He has suggested he may convert to Judaism, a religion that does not typically seek out converts.
Milei’s interest in religion is not his most pressing belief. The self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” president on Wednesday announced sharp spending cuts and a devaluation of Argentina’s currency, the peso, after just two days in office. But in some ways, his devotion to Judaism is a sign of his unusual personality type: that of a fervent convert.
Shortly after winning the Nov. 19 runoff election, Milei arrived in New York to pay his respects at the tomb of Menachem Mendel Schneerson — a renowned Orthodox Jewish rabbi buried in Queens. It is at least the second time he’s visited the grave in recent years. At his inauguration Sunday, Milei handed a menorah to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and referenced the Maccabean revolt against Hellenistic oppression.
Milei’s embrace of Judaism could influence Argentina’s foreign policy. Milei has already pledged to move Argentina’s Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite the disputed status of the latter city. At a Jewish Hanukkah festival in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, he offered unambiguous support for Israel amid the conflict in Gaza.
“We know that the forces of heaven will support Argentina and above all will support Israel at this time. Thank you very much and long live freedom, damn it,” he said.
In Argentina, a new Trump rises
Milei is nothing if not idiosyncratic. He has become famous for his outlandish style, including his hair (his nickname at home: “The Wig”). He proudly calls himself an “anarcho-capitalist” who has pledged shock therapy for the long-pained Argentine economy. His cuts on Tuesday are believed to be just the start: He wants to ditch the peso and adopt the U.S. dollar.
Argentina, which is home to a large Jewish community, estimated at around 250,000, has generally held friendly relations with Israel. There were significant tensions after World War II, when Argentina became a home for some escaped former Nazi officials, but relations later improved and Israel even sold arms to Argentina during its military dictatorship.
Milei’s path to support Israel comes from another direction. In an article published November in Tablet, Argentine journalist Martin Sivak wrote how accusations, made by members of the country’s political elite, that Milei was a Nazi sympathizer had stung the far-right economist. In response, Milei turned to a Jewish member of his party, Julio Goldestein, who introduced him to Shimon Axel Wahnish, the chief rabbi of ACILBA, which represents the Moroccan Jewish community of Argentina.
“They spoke at length, and then it turned into a kabbalistic meeting in which the rabbi noted that Javier would lead a liberationist movement in Argentina. Milei left the meeting excited,” Goldestein told Sivak.
This turned into a prolonged personal interest. Indeed, if Milei doesn’t convert to Judaism, he has suggested his reasons would not be political but rather religious. “If you are Jewish because your mother is Jewish, you are not obligated to comply with the precepts of Judaism. If you convert, you are obligated to,” Sivak quotes Milei as saying. “If I become president, what will I do during Shabbat? Are you going to disconnect from the country at sundown Friday to sundown Saturday? Questions like this make it incompatible.”
Remarks like these are a reminder of just how different Milei is. The Argentine leader may get lumped in with Orban, Trump or his neighbor in Brazil, former president Jair Bolsonaro, but they seem unlikely to publicly opine on the precepts of Judaism. Here is the fervor of a convert: Milei speaks about religion in a manner unlike even Benjamin Netanyahu, the right-wing leader of Israel and the son of a scholar of Jewish history.
Read the transcript of the interview that Milei conducted with the Economist in September and you will not get just the cynical chauvinism or simple machismo shown by other right-wing leaders, but something much more unusual. Here, he spoke of his embrace of Judaism in economic terms.
“If I am a liberal-libertarian, it is clear that the book of Shemot, or if you want it in English, the book of Exodus, for me is absolutely revealing: it narrates the departure from Egypt to the promised land. So for me it is an epic. Obviously, in that context, my admiration for Moses is … let’s say … is absolute. Why? Because he is, if you will, the first great liberator. And he and his brother Aaron confronted the Pharaoh, who was like the leader of the world’s great power at that time,” Milei said, per the transcript.
Judaism is just one example of the Argentine president’s unusual array of interests. In the same interview, Milei spoke of the limits of Keynesian economics, his love of British rock bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and his interest in cosplaying. He refused to confirm or deny that his dogs (five English mastiffs, all cloned and mostly named after American conservative economists) helped advise him on his policy programs.
Milei is likely to be a rare ally for Israel in Latin America, where some countries have taken diplomatic moves in protest of Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen this week visited Buenos Aires, where Milei told him he supported “Israel’s full right to defend itself against those terrorist attacks.”
But Milei may have his contradictions. He attracted attention in Israeli media early this month not for his interest in Judaism, but for appointing Rodolfo Barra to head a Treasury prosecution office: Barra is a former Justice minister forced to resign in 1996 following revelations about his past in a violent neo-Nazi group.