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US News

Javier Milei, Argentina’s president-elect, visits revered rabbi’s grave during NYC trip

By
Chris Nesi
Published Nov. 27, 2023, 2:20 p.m. ET

Argentina’s new president Monday visited the Queens grave of one of the most revered rabbis in modern history, paying his respects as he met with Jewish leaders in the Big Apple.

Javier Milei — a firebrand libertarian and outspoken admirer of Israel who has been fostering a close relationship with New York’s Hasidic community since well before his Oct. 22 election victory — stopped at the Ohel, the gravesite of the Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Donning a yarmulke and flanked by Hasidic community leaders, Milei, who is Catholic, somberly toured the rebbe’s final resting place, where he shared an embrace with others in his group.

Milei — who has openly bashed Pope Francis and mused about converting to Judaism — used the graveside visit to thank God for his election win, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.

The eccentric Argentinian leader is then headed to Washington, DC, to huddle with Biden administration officials over the South American country’s economic issues.

Javier Milei, Argentina's new president, visits the gravesite of an influential rabbi known as the rebbe in Queens.
Javier Milei, Argentina’s newly elected president and a longtime admirer of Israel, visited the revered gravesite of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Queens on Monday. Stephen Yang

The gravesite of the rebbe, who died in 1994, is visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year of all faiths. The Ohel is located at Montefiore Cemetery in Cambria Heights.

Milei had visited the site previously in September as he met with top Hasidic leaders in Brooklyn and Queens, even sharing his reverence for the rebbe in an undated campaign video.

A group of men in suits looking over a gravesite.
Milei paid his respects at the rebbe’s gravesite flanked by Hasidic Jewish community leaders. Stephen Yang
Three men, one holding an open book, stand together in a graveyard in Queens.
Milei sought to foster close ties with New York’s Hasidic community even before his Oct. 22 election victory. Stephen Yang

“There’s a book that contains the teachings of the rebbe. Usually they give you that book as a gift,” Milei said in the television clip that aired during his presidential campaign. “I had the chance, the honor, to meet one of those rabbis who wrote those teachings and I had the privilege that he gave me that book and signed it for me.”

Milei won his election with 55.7% of the vote, the highest margin of any candidate since Argentina was reestablished as a democracy in 1983.

He is set to be inaugurated into office Dec. 10.