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Argentinian president secretly attends Chabad event

Argentine President Javier Milei quietly takes part in event marking 30th anniversary of the passing of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe.

By World Israel News Staff

Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, was spotted at an event hosted by a local branch of the Chabad Hasidic movement on Monday.

The event was organized by the Chabad of Buenos Aires director-general, Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt, to mark the 30th anniversary of the passing of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

According to a report by Yedioth Aharonoth on Thursday, Milei attended the yahrzeit, or annual memorial service, in secret, requesting he be seated in a corner on the top floor of the hall, away from the thousands of other participants.

Rabbi Chaim Oirachman, a Chabad emissary in Buenos Aires, coordinated the president’s visit, adding that Milei had a strong personal desire to attend the event.

The event was opened with a recitation of Psalms by the Israeli Ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela, on behalf of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip and Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists.

Afterwards, Rabbi Eliahu Hamra from the AMIA community recited a Psalm for the Jews in Argentina. The main address was delivered by Rabbi Moshe New, a Chabad emissary from Montreal.

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Milei has long expressed admiration for and identification with Judaism, and has maintained a close connection with the Chabad movement in particular.

Raised a Roman Catholic, Milei revealed in April that his grandfather was Jewish and the grandson of a rabbi.

“He was very close to his mother and his grandfather was also a rabbi,” Milei said at a Chabad event in April. “That is to say, all the education he had received from them was deeply linked to Judaism and all the values he transmitted to me were Jewish.”