Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei on Monday visited the burial site of the the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as the first stop of his visit to the United States, ahead of his meetings with U.S. officials.
Milei arrived at the cemetery, located in Queens, New York, just after 9 A.M. with his entourage, where he met Rabbi Simon Jacobson, who has become somewhat of an informal advisor and mentor. Milei was visibly emotional when he met Rabbi Jacobson at the entrance of the site, and they went together to pray at the grave.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson greets an emotional Javier Milei, president-elect of Argentina, near the Ohel of the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Queens, New York, November 27, 2023 (Courtesy Rabbi Simon Jacobson)
The Libertarian Populist Milei is an ardent admirer of Judaism, and has even studied the Torah and considered converting to the Jewish faith from Catholicism, Breitbart News reported.
Jacobson told Breitbart News that Milei called him after Shabbat to notify him that he would be visiting the Ohel (the name of the Schneerson burial site) Monday morning.
Visitors pray and place letters at the Ohel, the burial site of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, in Queens, New York, November 27, 2023 (Emma-Jo Morris / Breitbart News)
“He’s a very spiritual guy, and I think he has that instinct,” Jacobson told Breitbart when asked about Milei’s fascination with the Rebbe. “Some people have that instinct— he just has a sense that it’s true, and it resonates with him.”
“Its universal, and global, and I think he just feels that he’s on a mission. I think he understands the bigger picture that a leader needs a vision, a leader isn’t just an administrator, he’s also a moral example, he has to inspire people,” Jacobson continued. “I think he just sees in the Rebbe’s teachings, things that he relates to.”
“He feels a sense of belief that there are blessings from above and he feels this is a holy place that brings him these blessings, and he came here to say ‘thank you’.”
Milei has repeatedly vowed that he would dramatically change Argentina’s foreign policy, currently oriented under leftist rule towards China, Russia, and Iran, as Breitbart previously reported.
Rabbi Jacobson told Breitbart that he believes there is divine intervention at play in Milei’s election, amid the turmoil in the Middle East, stoked and funded by Iran.
“We were speaking earlier, I was sitting with him for breakfast, and I said to him that, ‘you’re here at the Ohel, it’s historic times now with everything going on in Israel, and all the chaos.’ To have a leader like him, if he shows an example, he can have influence on all the leaders of the countries of the world. Because leadership is lacking, and he can be that, kind of, moral example,” Jacobson said. “He could change the world.”
“I find it serendipitous here, that in the middle of all that’s going on in the Middle East, in Israel, and here we are, and he becomes president, an underdog, and in a landslide win— there’s a lot of elements that sound to me like there’s some type of deeper choreography, an invisible hand at work,” Jacobson continued, adding that he is “honored to be part of it.”
Emma-Jo Morris is the Politics Editor at Breitbart News. Email her at
