Story on Argentina president-elect converting to Judaism walked back

The Bloomberg news agency is correcting an article that suggested that Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei is converting to Judaism, quoting an aide as saying merely that Milei intends to do this.

Milei, a right-leaning libertarian firebrand who won the November 19 election by a landslide, seeks to become Jewish, according to the corrected language of the article published Tuesday.

The article quotes indirectly an unnamed spokesperson of Milei as saying this.

Milei is an economist who became a television pundit for his penchant for shocking statements and animated rhetoric. He is making no secret of his affection for Israel and Judaism, including in a speech from 2021 in which he told reporters: “I am thinking about converting to Judaism and I aspire to become the first Jewish president in Argentine history.”

Milei, who has multiple Jewish advisors, contacts friends and mentors, is not currently known to be in a formal conversion process. However, his first stop upon arriving in New York this week was the gravesite of late Chabad Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.