Rabbi Simon Jacobson on His Special Relationship with Argentine President Javier Milei Ahead of His Israel Visit

Ahead of the expected visit by Argentine President Javier Milei to Israel next month, where he will formally address the Israeli parliament (Knesset) in Jerusalem, Belaaz had an exclusive conversation with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, who spent years, who spent years writing the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s talks, and has developed relationships with numerous foreign dignitaries. He shares a special relationship with Argentina’s revolutionary president, Javier Milei, a conservative, spiritual man with a strong love of Judaism and the Jewish people.

Milei has visited Israel before, meeting top leadership, and he invited Rabbi Jacobson to join him there last year. Milei expressed immense support after Oct. 7, and he plans on returning to Israel next month.

Belaaz spoke with Rabbi Jacobson on his adventures with this unique leader. Rabbi Jacobson is expected to join Milei’s upcoming trip to Israel.

How did your relationship with President Milei begin?

In 2023 he was running for office. I’d never met him before, and he came to New York. He was going to the Ohel to visit the (Lubavitcher) Rebbe’s gravesite, at the advice of some business people he knew who thought the a good idea to get a blessing. 

Someone who was aware of him being in New York introduced him to me, and I met him on a Sunday in Crown Heights. They suggested I give him my book, “Toward a Meaningful Life” in Spanish. It’s not the first time I’ve met dignitaries. Often I meet people and just have a conversation. People introduce me to either candidates or leaders, just to have a conversation about the universal Jewish view on things, being that’s my field of expertise. 

So we had this conversation. I met with him and his sister, Karina, and we spoke in English. He speaks English, broken English, but he speaks English and he was extremely taken by my book and by the message we shared. I shared some of the message of the book about what leadership is. That’s not just political or economic. It’s spiritual leadership. It’s helping people find their purpose in life. 

I shared with him the work I did for many years, which was to remember (the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s talks), because Shabbat and holidays, no notes are taken and no recordings are made… he never heard that before, and I remember he was overwhelmed by that…there some kindred spirit connection.

Was it a more formal meeting? Was he surrounded by an entourage?

Only his sister and and another person traveled with him. It was just a personal meeting…remember, he was only a candidate and he was an underdog. No one thought he’s going to be president.

He was actually seen as an unlikely candidate, because they saw him as a little  wild, bit of an extreme Libertarian,

Anyways, the next thing I know, a few days later, someone sends me a clip in Spanish from national Argentinian TV. He’s speaking about his meeting with me, and he says that he was honored to meet someone that sat and listened to a master. And he repeated the idea of chazarah, as well as that he got an autographed book by from me. Anyway, he was talking about it in a very glowing way. I realized that. And even at the initial meeting, I saw that he was a man who was very interesting, very smart, very spiritual, very humble, not a political type of guy. And he had very good, we call it the street instincts. He had very good gut instincts. He was street smart, and he’s a person who followed his his gut.

 And so this was September.  October 7 came  a month later and and then was the election a month later. He had a runoff with another candidate, and he won in a landslide, which was a big surprise, and the next thing I know, someone told me he’s the president of Argentina! Being that I do a lot of videos. I do videos every day, almost many that are on YouTube, on all types of topics, I decided to record a video congratulating him and for his victory and blessing him that he should have the wisdom that G-d gives the heart of leaders and kings, it says, “lev melachim v’sarim b’yad Hashem,’ and G-d should guide him to lead his people and do what he has to accomplish anyway.

 I didn’t know if he would see the video or not. A day later, I get a call from him, and he says to me, he was in tears, very moved by my message, and he can’t really speak right now, because he’s very busy, but maybe he can call me in the next few day.

After Shabbos, I’m sitting my wife after making Havdallah, and he calls me, like a half hour after Shabbos, and we have a nice talk. And then he told me that he’s coming on Monday to New York. This will be his first journey, first trip as elected president, and he wanted to go back to the Ohel. And he asked me, would I come and join him at the Ohell? I said sure! We had breakfast again, not a big group, very small. He had the ambassador the U.S., a Jewish guy from Texas. He had a few other people, and we spent, like, three hours. I mean, when we met, he gave me this big, big hug, and everybody was snapping pictures, and everyone was wondering, what’s this connection with me. But the truth is, as I said, the connection just began a few September. This was now November.

He’s a pretty emotional person.

He is, but more than that, he’s very transparent. He doesn’t hide his feelings. He’s  confident. He’s very secure and confident. And we spent a lot of time just speaking, no airs about him. You just sit with him and you don’t even know he’s the president, he’s just listening. He’s very good listener. And we connect, continue to bond, and then the bond just continued to grow. He invited me to the inauguration, which I didn’t go to. I wasn’t looking for a photo op, but I did go. He invited me to the presidential palace, so I went in January, and I met with him there in his presidential palace, which is like the White House in Buenos Aires, and we continued to connect.

It was very nice and and then he told me in the meeting, and we talked about a lot of internal things, I told him very bluntly that I feel that he has a historic opportunity to change the world. There’s no leadership out there, there’s no moral clarity. We live in a very confused world, and here you are, you speak your mind, you speak your conscience, and I want to encourage you to use that pulpit to inspire other world leaders to create a revolution, a moral revolution. That was my words that I used, and he he responds to that very much. He’s a visionary type of person and he just has a natural love for truth. 

Speaking about Milei’s interest in Judaism, Rabbi Jacobson says: “It’s not because of someone’s influence, he just instinctively feels that the truth lies in the Torah, because it’s here for thousands of years, and even though he grew up Catholic, he said all of that came from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, everything came from Judaism. So he sees Judaism as the original moral code. And he looks at Avraham Avinu and Moshe Rabbeinu, in his words, as role models of a leader. He turns to them for direction. So he actually reads the parsha every week, and he comes up with ideas. People think I feed him or somebody else teaches him. It’s not correct. He’s a very intelligent guy, and he just is drawn to this wealth of wisdom.

He learns on his own, and then he asked me questions from time to time, and we became very personally connected on WhatsApp. And we communicate pretty often in a very informal way.

 I met his rabbi, who became the ambassador to Israel, Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish, who’s now in Israel, and we became friendly and ever since, our connection has just gotten deeper and deeper…then he (Milei) told me he’s going to Israel. And that’s when I went with him last March.