{"id":108751,"date":"2023-11-21T18:05:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=108751"},"modified":"2023-11-21T14:31:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T12:31:47","slug":"27-05-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=108751","title":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s Would-Be Jewish Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"center alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.reunion68.com\/Biuletyn\/img\/tablet-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"35%\"><\/a><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000080;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #000080; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/argentina-jewish-trump-javier-milei\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Argentina\u2019s Would-Be Jewish Trump<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><br \/>\nMART\u00cdN SIVAK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr style=\"height: 15px; background: #d0e6fa; width: 100%;\">\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><strong>While promising to dollarize Argentina\u2019s economy and defeat the country\u2019s political class, Javier Milei, the outsider in this weekend\u2019s election runoff, keeps the Torah close<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/tablet-mag-images.b-cdn.net\/production\/7e5ba3a3dd7f9787c4e83f5d80afbb861e694564-3000x2000.jpg?w=1300&amp;q=70&amp;auto=format&amp;dpr=1\" width=\"100%\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>TOMAS CUESTA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In June 2021, Javier Gerardo Milei, a 50-year-old economist, was a political neophyte up for representative of Buenos Aires in the national Chamber of Deputies, under his La Libertad Avanza party. He was mortified by generic accusations of being a \u201cNazi\u201d that had been directed at him on social media. Over the ensuing months, these would get amplified to such a degree that the unthinkable happened: In March 2023, even the country\u2019s president, Alberto Fernandez, would&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.batimes.com.ar\/news\/argentina\/alberto-fernandez-javier-milei-is-a-threat-to-democracy-hitler-was-also-voted-in.phtml\">say<\/a>&nbsp;that \u201cMilei is a threat to democracy\u201d and, as if the comparison were possible, reminded people that \u201cHitler did not come [to power] through a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, he came through the German people\u2019s vote.\u201d Milei called Julio Goldestein, a politician in his party and his conduit to the Jewish community, to meet at a hotel. Goldestein suggested some ways to restrain the attacks, and proposed an introduction to Shimon Axel Wahnish, the chief rabbi of the Moroccan Jewish community of Argentina (ACILBA).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Goldestein accompanied Milei to that first meeting with Wahnish, but he did not go in for their interview. \u201cThey 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,\u201d Goldestein told me. From then on, Milei studied Torah with Wahnish.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Twenty-six months after that encounter, in August 2023, Milei won the most votes in Argentina\u2019s presidential primaries. He came in second in the general election in October, and will be on the ballot Nov. 19 against Sergio Massa, the economy minister in the incumbent Peronist government. Milei plans to introduce radical change to Argentina during an abysmal crisis. The&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/argentina-poverty-rate-rises-401-first-half-2023-2023-09-27\/\">poverty index<\/a>&nbsp;is over 40%,&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/retail-consumer\/cant-buy-new-jeans-argentinas-100-inflation-draws-crowds-used-clothes-markets-2023-11-13\/\">inflation<\/a>&nbsp;is at 143% annually, there are 20 different exchange rates for U.S. dollars, along with a crushing external debt. Milei\u2019s proposal is to dollarize the economy, as has been done in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Zimbabwe, and to eliminate the Central Bank in a framework of all-out defense of the market economy, along with a vague but electorally expedient promise to end the country\u2019s political class.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In the midst of this proposal for change, Milei, born Catholic, has advanced his own personal change: a conversion to Judaism. He told me about it during a two-hour conversation on July 16 in loaned offices across from the River Plate, in Puerto Madero, central Buenos Aires. There was no furniture, nor paintings. Just three seats for us to sit on, and a mirror still in its packaging. I asked him if there was something holding back his conversion plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cIf you are Jewish,\u201d he told me, \u201cbecause your mother is Jewish, you are not obligated to comply with the precepts of Judaism. If you convert, you are obligated to. 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">At the time Milei was polling a distant third place, and his results in various previous state elections were fairly bad. Even so, he was thinking about the practical dilemma of how to handle Sabbath restrictions while being president. From what I can glean from Milei\u2019s unstable personality, he\u2019d started to read the Torah as part of his nerdy approach to economic theory. But as he discovered a new world opened up to him by Torah study, he glimpsed the possibility of a more spiritual life, at which point he\u2019d decided to convert to Judaism. (As of this writing, he has not yet completed his conversion.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">On that July afternoon, Milei was in a notably bad mood. He had fought with one of his campaign managers over an ad, and his body showed the wear of the 11-hour New York-to-Buenos Aires flight he had taken that morning. He hadn\u2019t made public his trip or his reasons for it: to visit the tomb of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe. A Twitter user had uploaded a short video showing Milei wearing a kippah, with a Torah under his arm.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">When I asked Milei about his foreign policy, he was cutting.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cOur most natural allies are the United States and Israel. I want nothing to do with the communists of Cuba, China, North Korea. What does that mean? Trade with whoever you want, but I am not going to foment those relationships.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Like Trump, Milei wants to move the Argentine Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Argentina is the country with the most Jews in Latin America, and ranks fifth in Jewish population outside of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">One day after Hamas\u2019 brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel, where nine of the 1,400 dead were Argentine, the second presidential debate was held in Buenos Aires. Milei declared his solidarity with Israel and its \u201cfull right to defend its territory from terrorists.\u201d He claimed that no other candidate would go as far in their support. He promises to be the Argentine president most friendly to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"Divider Divider--dotted-rule overflow-hidden\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Up until the pandemic in early 2020, Milei worked as chief economist for an important economic group, Eduardo Eurnekian\u2019s America Corporation. Eurnekian is a 90-year-old airport magnate and one of the five richest people in Argentina. Milei began to make appearances on television, in particular on a channel in which Eurnekian owned shares. He got noticed for his histrionics, his piques of anger, and his premeditadedly unruly hair. Nothing was meant to go unnoticed. Not even his relationship with his dogs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Milei owns four English mastiffs that he named after economists\u2014Murray (Rothbard), Milton (Friedman), Robert, and Lucas (for Robert Lucas)\u2014and he considers them his grandchildren. They are cloned from Conan, who died in 2017. He has said that Conan was the being that he most loved in his life and the only one, along with his sister Karina, who has never betrayed him. When I asked him if it was true that he still talked to Conan, he replied that it was a private matter. As a television pundit he has brought his mastiffs to the studios of America TV.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In those appearances, his central theme was the economy and economic theory in a country that was demanding explanations for its cyclical, worsening crises of the last few years. Milei declared himself an admirer of the late 19th-century Austrian school of economics. The market is everything, the state should be nothing, he postulated. He was headed for anarcho-capitalism and to finding an identity: libertarian liberalism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>If I become president, what will I do during Shabbat? Are you going to disconnect from the country at sundown Friday to sundown Saturday?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The strict quarantine Fernandez\u2019s center-left Peronist government imposed during the pandemic was heavily criticized, in particular for the prolonged shutdown of schools. Bit by bit, Milei began to gather in Buenos Aires all those angry at the lockdowns, and he managed, in the name of liberty, to gain some sticking power among the under-30 set. He had for the first time in his life stepped into party politics, and he decided to run for national representative for Buenos Aires.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">During one of those assemblies, Milei found onstage a powerful phrase: \u201cI\u2019m not here to guide sheep, I\u2019m here to awaken lions.\u201d He wanted to invert the kind of representation that he believed the governing Peronism offered: a state that herds and supports its followers based on perks and clientelism. His hair helped suggest the symbolism of the party lion. That symbol needed an anthem, and he found \u201cPanic Show,\u201d a song by the Argentine rock group Le Renga:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px;\"><strong><em>Hello everyone! I am the lion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>The beast roared in the middle of the avenue<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>Everyone ran, not knowing why,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>Panic show in the full light of day<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>Please don\u2019t run from me<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>I am the king of a lost world<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>I am the king, and I will destroy you,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><strong><em>All accomplices are appetizing to me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In the 2021 legislative elections, Milei got 17% of the vote in the city of Buenos Aires, which represents 7% of the national vote. After that auspicious result he began to plan his presidential candidacy, with the disadvantage of lacking a national party, but with one relative advantage: the poor handling of the economic crisis by the Peronist government and its predecessor. Mauricio Macri, a right-wing businessman, ex-president of the Boca Juniors professional soccer team, had risen to power in 2015 with a promise of change. To avoid defaulting on its international debt, Argentina got the largest loan in the history of the International Monetary Fund: $44 billion. Despite that extraordinary aid, Macri didn\u2019t make it out of the first round in the following elections. On that double frustration\u2014the discouraging economic situation under the past two governments and no real prospects for the future\u2014Milei has been capturing the anger going around.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/tablet-mag-images.b-cdn.net\/production\/f37683c949680f5077df589fbe669074d93a64b7-3000x2000.jpg?w=1200&amp;q=70&amp;auto=format&amp;dpr=1\" width=\"100%\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Milei lifts a chainsaw next to Buenos Aires province gubernatorial candidate Carolina Piparo of La Libertad Avanza during a rally in San Martin, Buenos Aires, on Sept. 25, 2023 \/ TOMAS CUESTA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The close of the 2023 primary campaign was the second Monday of August, at the Movistar Arena, which was built on land belonging to Atlanta, a Jewish athletic club in Villa Crespo\u2014one of the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires with a large Jewish population. In the 1950s and \u201960s, a question made the rounds on radio and television:&nbsp;<em>What is the capital of Israel? Villa Crespo, also called Villa Kreplaj.<\/em>&nbsp;Raanan Rein, the Israeli historian who has written about 20th-century Argentina, tells in his book&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sup.org\/books\/title\/?id=23534\"><em>F\u00fatbol, Jews and the Making of Argentina<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;how for first-generation Jewish immigrants, belonging to Atlanta was a form of conversion, to become Argentines.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The night the campaign came to a close, Milei gathered some 13,000 people. After the lights went out, the screen lit up with an illustration of a man with an instrument in the form of a ram\u2019s horn, and under it the word shofar in white letters. The goal of the symbol was pedagogical: to present the instrument to a people who knew nothing about the Jewish world or its culture. If on Rosh Hashanah the shofar is blown to welcome the new year, at the Atlanta event it marked the start of a series of images of buildings collapsing, maritime explosions, seas parting, smoke, fire, and huge waves. These images could be understood as representing the will to rebuild Argentina after its catastrophes.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">From one of the corners of the field, Milei appeared wearing a suit. With a practiced step, he headed to the stage, surrounded by supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cAll the political class is appetizing to me,\u201d he shouted wildly, uninhibited, citing his theme song \u201cPanic Show.\u201d It was also an evocation of the young Milei, who used to sing covers of The Rolling Stones with his band Everest.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cYou tell \u2019em, Wig!\u201d shouted a man in his 60s, tall, serious and beetle-browed, standing next to me in Movistar Arena.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The mostly young crowd was not one that might typically attend a political rally, except for a few of them who were wearing name-brand soccer jerseys, hats, and shoes. It seemed more like the audience that might attend a concert at Movistar Arena. Some were wearing hats with the motto \u201cStrength From Heaven,\u201d a favorite of Karina Milei, the candidate\u2019s sister and campaign manager. It\u2019s an abbreviation of 1 Maccabees 3:19: \u201cIt is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but from heaven the strength.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In the crowd I spotted a friend\u2019s son, the only one there wearing a kippah.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cI like Milei because he\u2019s seriously opposed to the political caste,\u201d Ariel, 22, told me.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">But neither the shofar, nor the choice of Atlanta, nor the Maccabean phrase were aimed at Ariel, nor at the Jewish vote, which electoral sociologists don\u2019t recognize as a variable in Argentina. It\u2019s more from Milei\u2019s own interest in the Torah and Judaism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">One week after the Atlanta event came the largest electoral shakeup since the return of democracy in 1983. Milei won the election with 30% of the vote, just 2 percentage points more than another opposition candidate, from the center-right Juntos por el Cambio party, and 3 points more than the government. But that win, which neither the pollsters, nor the analysts, nor the mainstream media predicted, gave Milei momentum heading into the October general elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Alas, the elections witnessed a second black swan event: Massa, the government candidate and economy minister, won with almost 37% of the vote, compared with Milei\u2019s 30% and 24% for Juntos por el Cambio. With consumer prices soaring above 12%, poverty at 40%, and economic collapse amid persistent social decline, Massa defied all expectations to take on Milei in a runoff. Patricia Bullrich, the candidate from the third-place party, announced a few days after that she would be supporting Milei. In the midst of a massive economic crisis, Argentina appears to be on a roller coaster of electoral emotions that will end on Nov. 19, when Milei may or may not become the next president of Argentina.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<div class=\"Divider Divider--dotted-rule overflow-hidden\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Unlike Donald Trump, who chose the narrative of an outsider but achieved the presidency as a Republican, or Jair Bolsonaro, who was a member of different political parties for many years before ascending to the presidency of Brazil, Milei had no party, and just a bare-bones legal apparatus for launching his candidacy in 2021. The Integration and Development Movement (MID), a tiny party without parliamentary representation, was one of the parties that loaned its cloak to Milei, through its leaders Julio Goldestein and Oscar Zago. Goldestein, an economist by profession, has a political history: first with a student chapter of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), then as an adviser to President Fernando de la Rua (of the conservative wing of the UCR) when he was a national senator, and later in second- and third-tier positions in Radical, Peronist, and Juntos por el Cambio governments.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cYou have a clean and pure stamp here,\u201d Goldestein and Zago told Milei before the first election, referring to the MID. (The remark was confirmed by both Goldestein and Milei\u2019s camp.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">As part of their agreement, Zago became third on the list of legislators from Buenos Aires in 2021. In the 2023 election, Zago and Goldestein were second and fourth on the candidates lists for national representative for Buenos Aires. Goldestein was the only candidate from the Jewish community on any of the lists.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cIn 2021 we began to have talks on specific questions about the Torah, and we argued over who knew more,\u201d Goldestein remembered. \u201cI said that the first economic project is in there, and it was Joseph\u2019s when in Egypt he saw seven years of skinny cows and seven years of fat cows and understood economic cycles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">At that time, Milei was not systematically studying Torah. His interest began years before, when he was an economic tutor for a member of the low-profile Sutton family, owners of two of the most important hotels in Argentina\u2014the Alvear in Buenos Aires and the Patagonia Llao Llao. As Milei remembered it, his student, who wanted to be a rabbi, asked him the best questions he had ever heard about economics.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Milei started systematically studying Torah in June 2021, the day Goldestein introduced him to Rabbi Wahnish. A modern Orthodox doctor of educational psychology, Wahnish was director and professor at a Jewish study center for young college students at Sucath David Programs, until he took over the Moroccan Jewish community of Argentina (ACILBA). ACILBA has its headquarters in the heart of Palermo, one of the hippest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. Its self-described goal is to \u201cassist any member of the community in whatever way they need, with all types of spiritual consultations and accompanying them through every step of life. Hewing to our Moroccan roots, living a present of continual growth, and dreaming of a future where all Jews can be part of the community.\u201d During the pandemic, Wahnish became known for his \u201ccouples spaces.\u201d \u201cWe have the illusion that marriage will help us solve a lot of the drama that we bring, but no, marriage amplifies the problems,\u201d he would say in those classes, as the Argentine newspaper&nbsp;<em>Perfil<\/em>&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.perfil.com\/noticias\/politica\/los-secretos-del-rabino-axel-wahnish-la-guia-espiritual-de-javier-milei.phtml\">described<\/a>&nbsp;them.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Milei\u2019s study method has been mostly in-person and sometimes by text messages, in which he also sends Torah passages. \u201cHe\u2019s someone I love a lot, who I consult regularly, and sometimes the conversations require two or three hours: He stimulates me to do economical readings of Torah,\u201d Milei told me. Wahnish declined to speak to me for this article and he has so far not made any public declarations about his relationship to the Libertad Avanza presidential candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Milei began to fold his Torah reading into his public discourse. \u201cMy main reference, to whom I continually refer, is Moses,\u201d he&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.perfil.com\/noticias\/politica\/milei-hablo-de-su-fanatismo-por-moises-y-de-su-epoca-en-tinder.phtml\">said<\/a>&nbsp;in April of this year. He spoke of Moses\u2019 infinite humility. \u201cI work to be more humble, a battle you must wage every day against ego, greed, and lust.\u201d He added, \u201cMoses was finally rewarded with the greatest of all prizes, which is to know the One\u201d\u2014a reference to God. On a television program, he also said that Moses was a great leader but he didn\u2019t know how to publicize his message. \u201cGod sent him Aaron to spread the word. Kari is Moses and I am the one who spreads the word,\u201d he said, before breaking down in tears. Kari is his sister Karina, whom he masculinizes in Spanish, calling her \u201cEl Jefe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<div class=\"Divider Divider--dotted-rule overflow-hidden\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Carlos Maslat\u00f3n is a lawyer and was a political leader until the 1990s when he turned to finance, later joining the ranks alongside Milei. An influencer and a regular presence in the media and on TV, Maslat\u00f3n was always a reference for Milei in his nascent approach to the Jewish world, until Milei had a personal and political rupture with him.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In August 2021, two months before the election for representative, Maslat\u00f3n had lunch with Milei and Wahnish in ACILBA. Maslat\u00f3n saw in Milei a purely religious interpretation of Judaism, a Christian interpretation that was different than his own, which was, in his own words, more of a nation-building project. This is why he gave Milei Paul Johnson\u2019s&nbsp;<em>A<\/em>&nbsp;<em>History of the Jews<\/em>, with the idea of offering Milei more of a universalist vision of Judaism, removed from the more religious one he also saw in Wahnish. Milei asked Maslat\u00f3n to dedicate it to him: \u201cDedicated to a great friend of the Jewish people and State of Israel, Javier Milei.\u201d He also gave him Martin Gilbert\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Jewish History Atlas<\/em>. On Aug. 31, 2021, Maslat\u00f3n publicized this encounter, convinced that studying Torah with Wahnish would only reinforce in Milei that religious vision of Judaism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Two months later, after the great electoral results in Buenos Aires, Milei started in on the weekly parsha and would read Talmud without assistance, Goldestein said. In November, he called Maslat\u00f3n with a revelation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cMilei told me that he spoke to the Almighty,\u201d Maslat\u00f3n recounted. \u201cHe said that he had been given the order to fight to make Argentina a liberal country. What was my response? How interesting. What am I going to tell him? With that he had entered a messianic period. He sees himself in this situation: climbing Mount Sinai, coming down with the Tablets of the Law, and rekindling the fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/tablet-mag-images.b-cdn.net\/production\/13085435c8b811c9814df9b374776f9cbc46be47-3000x2000.jpg?w=1200&amp;q=70&amp;auto=format&amp;dpr=1\" width=\"100%\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Javier Milei at a 2021 campaign rally in Buenos Aires \/ ANITA POUCHARD SERRA\/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"ArticleView__content-switch bradford text-article-body-md font-300 mxauto\">\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Despite such an intense approach to the religious texts, Milei was never able to establish relationships with the main Jewish communal institutions, such as the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA) or the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA). In the first case, he believes that DAIA is too conditioned by its long association with the other opposition party, Juntos por el Cambio. With AMIA he has never gotten beyond the most basic formalities, according to representatives contacted for this article.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">One episode mortifies him. This year the National Congress approved a law that declared July 18 as a national day of mourning for the victims of the AMIA bombings in 1994 that caused the death of 85 people. Milei first voted against it, and then he asked to change his vote. This last July 18, on the occasion of the commemoration, Milei was rebuked by some in attendance for his initial vote. \u201cIt was a plot against me,\u201d he said\u2014an idea that he returns to in other areas.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Alejandro Dujovne, a social scientist and author of the Argentine canonical text&nbsp;<em><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/sigloxxieditores.com.ar\/libro\/una-historia-del-libro-judio\/\">Una historia del libro jud\u00edo<\/a>&nbsp;<\/em>(A History of the Jewish Book), explains Milei\u2019s relationship to Judaism: \u201cHe approaches Judaism and claims to be converting to it, but his approach to and his understanding of the Jewish experience seems to be exclusively centered on the Torah. The social dimension, the centrality of communal life, is foreign to Milei. He probably does not understand what an organization like AMIA is or what function it serves, nor would he know the extension and vitality of the institutional interweaving of schools, sports clubs, synagogues. And still less the diversity of religious, cultural, and political viewpoints that shape Argentinian Jewish life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">On Sept. 21, nearly 4,000 Jewish artists and intellectuals\u2014the majority identifying with the left and progressive causes\u2014published a letter of concern for \u201cexpressions of hate\u201d by Milei and his \u201cpolitical use of Judaism, its texts, and its symbols &#8230; to underwrite his discourse of hate.\u201d They say he makes \u201cdeclarations of discriminatory, misogynistic content, contrary to sexual diversity, political plurality, and democratic coexistence in general.\u201d They also accused Milei of decontextualizing religious texts for his own political goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">One week later, there was another dust-up. Mart\u00edn Krause, tapped for the education portfolio in a Milei administration, participated in a talk with other possible cabinet members of other candidates, at the Torcuato di Tella University. At one point in his presentation he used a rhetorical question to explain Argentina\u2019s decadence, with the state being administered by&nbsp;<em>chantas<\/em>&nbsp;(a very Argentine expression that could be translated as \u201cunreliable\u201d) and others who don\u2019t do their jobs\u2014a common topic for Milei, who is looking to drastically reduce the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cImagine if the Gestapo had been Argentines. Wouldn\u2019t it have been better?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Krause answered his own question.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">\u201cBecause instead of killing 6 million Jews it would have been less. Because there would have been bribes, inefficiencies, they would have been napping\u2014but they were German. That was the problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">When the comments became public, they were repudiated by DAIA, other Jewish communal institutions, and every other candidate, for banalizing the Holocaust. Krause apologized, and Milei kept him in his potential cabinet.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ArticleEndNote BlockContent col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 mxauto bradford text-article-body-md italic font-300\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Translated from the Spanish by <strong>Matthew Fishbane.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"AuthorBioBlock col-12 lg:col-10 xl-wide:col-8 w100 mt6 mxauto\">\n<div class=\"AuthorBioBlock__container graebenbach mt1_5 text-section-details-sm font-300 color-red\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em><strong>Mart\u00edn Sivak<\/strong> is the author of eight works of nonfiction, including the international bestseller&nbsp;El salto de pap\u00e1&nbsp;(2017). A journalist since the age of 18, he holds a Ph.D. in Latin American history from New York University and is a regular contributor to&nbsp;El Pa\u00eds, a daily newspaper in Spain.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr style=\"height: 15px; background: #d0e6fa; width: 100%;\">\n<div id=\"content\" class=\"content-alignment\">\n<div id=\"watch-description\" class=\"yt-uix-button-panel\">\n<div id=\"watch-description-text\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><em>Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion&#8217;68,<\/em><em><br \/>\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion&#8217;68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.<br \/>\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:<br \/>\n<\/em><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"mailto:webmaster@reunion68.com\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr style=\"width: 100%;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina\u2019s Would-Be Jewish Trump MART\u00cdN SIVAK While promising to dollarize Argentina\u2019s economy and defeat the country\u2019s political class, Javier Milei, the outsider in this weekend\u2019s election runoff, keeps the Torah close TOMAS CUESTA\/GETTY IMAGES In June 2021, Javier Gerardo Milei, a 50-year-old economist, was a political neophyte up for representative of Buenos Aires in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108751"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108775,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108751\/revisions\/108775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}