{"id":64797,"date":"2024-06-03T11:58:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T11:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/another-milestone-in-mexico-its-first-jewish-president\/"},"modified":"2024-06-03T11:58:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T11:58:06","slug":"another-milestone-in-mexico-its-first-jewish-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/another-milestone-in-mexico-its-first-jewish-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Milestone in Mexico: Its First Jewish President"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/03\/multimedia\/03mexico-jewish-president-tkcb\/03mexico-jewish-president-tkcb-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Another Milestone in Mexico: Its First Jewish President\" title=\"Another Milestone in Mexico: Its First Jewish President\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mexico <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/06\/02\/world\/americas\/results-mexico-presidential-election.html\" title=\"\">elected its first Jewish president<\/a> over the weekend, a remarkable step in a country with one of the world\u2019s largest Catholic populations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet if it is a watershed moment for Mexico, it has been overshadowed by another one: President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum will also be the first woman to lead the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There is another reason there\u2019s been relatively little discussion of her Judaism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, rarely discusses her heritage. When she does, she tends to convey a more distant relationship to Judaism than many others in Mexico\u2019s Jewish community, which stretches back to the origins of Mexico itself, and today <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inegi.org.mx\/contenidos\/programas\/ccpv\/2020\/doc\/Censo2020_Principales_resultados_EUM.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">numbers about 59,000<\/a> in a country of 130 million people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOf course I know where I come from, but my parents were atheists,\u201d Ms. Sheinbaum told The New York Times in a 2020 interview. \u201cI never belonged to the Jewish community. We grew up a little removed from that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Sheinbaum\u2019s parents were both leftists and involved in the sciences, and she was raised in a secular household in Mexico City in the 1960s and 70s, a time of considerable political agitation in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe way she embraces her own Mexican identity, from a very young age, is rooted in science, socialism, political activism,\u201d said Tessy Schlosser, a historian and director of the Mexican Jewish Documentation and Research Center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Additionally, Ms. Sheinbaum\u2019s story of migration, as the descendant of Jews who emigrated to Mexico in the 20th century, \u201cdoes not give any political capital\u201d in a political society where candidates often allude to their mestizo or Indigenous roots, Ms. Schlosser said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Sheinbaum\u2019s father, Carlos Sheinbaum Yoselevitz, a businessman and chemical engineer, was the son of Ashkenazi Jews who fled Lithuania in the early 20th century. Her mother, Annie Pardo Cemo, a biologist and professor emeritus at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is the daughter of Sephardic Jews who fled Bulgaria before the Holocaust.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But while Ms. Sheinbaum (pronounced SHANE-balm) has downplayed her ties to Judaism, her origins have not gone entirely unnoticed, revealing currents of xenophobia and antisemitism persisting beneath the surface in Mexican politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After emerging last year as a presidential contender, Ms. Sheinbaum faced \u201cbirther\u201d attacks questioning whether she was born in Mexico or even Mexican.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among those leading the attacks against her was Vicente Fox, a conservative former president who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.infobae.com\/mexico\/2023\/07\/23\/fox-es-lo-que-representa-la-derecha-responde-claudia-sheinbaum-tras-ser-llamada-judia-bulgara\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">called<\/a> Ms. Sheinbaum a \u201cBulgarian Jew.\u201d Ms. Sheinbaum responded by releasing a copy of her <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Claudiashein\/status\/1674129481827581952?lang=en\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">birth certificate<\/a> detailing her place of birth as Mexico City. \u201cI am 100 percent Mexican, the proud daughter of Mexican parents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, Ms. Sheinbaum\u2019s candidacy has cast attention on Mexico\u2019s Jewish community, and the array of reactions to her political ascent from Mexican Jews.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While Jewish people first arrived in Mexico in 1519, at the time of the Spanish conquest, and continued arriving in colonial times to escape persecution in Europe, their numbers grew considerably in the 20th century. A large number of Jews in Mexico trace their origins to Syria, while others came from other parts of the former Ottoman Empire or Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mexico remains predominantly Christian with nearly 100 million Catholics and 14 million Protestants, according to a 2020 census. But Mexican Jews have long figured prominently into public life, including broadcast journalists such as <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/04\/01\/world\/in-mexico-top-newsman-and-network-part-ways.html\" title=\"\">Jacobo Zabludovsky<\/a> and Leo Zuckermann; writers like Margo Glantz and Enrique Krauze; and politicians like Salom\u00f3n Chertorivski, a progressive who mounted a losing bid this year for mayor of Mexico City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Sabina Berman, a Jewish writer and journalist, is among the high-profile Mexican Jews who have sided with Ms. Sheinbaum, calling her \u201cdisciplined\u201d and a \u201cgreat candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But such endorsements have been far from unanimous, reflecting the skepticism among some in Mexico\u2019s Jewish community about the leftist political leanings of Ms. Sheinbaum, a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of the combative current president, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In one example, Carlos Alazraki, a prominent advertising executive, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wa-3g_qYg8s\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that Ms. Sheinbaum was \u201cabsolutely resentful\u201d toward people of means because of being raised by parents he called \u201ccommunists.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe envy she has toward the middle class on up is impressive,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s vindictive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More broadly, Ms. Sheinbaum also faced criticism during the campaign, accused of exploiting religious figures to connect with Catholic voters. After she met with Pope Francis, her opponents questioned her beliefs and seized on previous <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Claudiashein\/status\/1522269927280988161\/photo\/4\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">images<\/a> of her wearing a skirt bearing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a hugely important figure in Mexican catholicism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe both had a meeting with the pope,\u201d said X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez, her top rival in the race, at a recent debate. \u201cDid you tell His Holiness how you used a skirt with the Virgin of Guadalupe even though you don\u2019t believe in her, or in God?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pressed after such attacks to say whether she believes in God, Ms. Sheinbaum <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/politico.mx\/sheinbaum-es-catolica-esto-dice-la-candidata-sobre-sus-creencias\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>, \u201cI am a woman of faith and of science,\u201d and accused Ms. G\u00e1lvez of disrespecting the separation of church and state, a central tenet of Mexico\u2019s political system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A more nuanced picture of Ms. Sheinbaum\u2019s identity emerges from some of her own statements in the past. \u201cI grew up without religion, that\u2019s how my parents raised me,\u201d Ms. Sheinbaum <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oUhGt3-0Wek\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> a gathering organized by a Jewish organization in Mexico City in 2018. \u201cBut obviously the culture, that\u2019s in your blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She told Arturo Cano, who wrote her biography, that she observed Yom Kippur and other Jewish holidays with her grandparents, but that \u201cit was more cultural than religious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like other secular Jews in Mexico, Ms. Sheinbaum has also said she wasn\u2019t pushed to marry within the faith. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like \u2018you have to marry a Jew\u2019, which happened with my mother,\u201d Ms. Sheinbaum told The Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Writing in a Mexican newspaper, Ms. Sheinbaum said her paternal grandfather left Europe because he was \u201cJewish and communist\u201d and her maternal grandparents escaped \u201cNazi persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMany of my relatives from that generation were exterminated in the concentration camps,\u201d she said in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jornada.com.mx\/2009\/01\/12\/index.php?section=opinion&amp;article=002a2cor\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">letter to the editor of La Jornada<\/a> from 2009, in which she also condemned what she described as \u201cthe murder of Palestinian civilians\u201d during an Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the war there broke out last year, Ms. Sheinbaum has condemned attacks on civilians, called for a cease-fire and said she supports a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It remains to be seen how, as president, she will navigate Mexico\u2019s position on the war, an increasingly contentious issue in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Just last week, pro-Palestinian protesters <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/law-enforcement-protests-and-demonstrations-mexico-mexico-city-c7c403052cef475b80b7f3bad9082674\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">clashed<\/a> with the police outside the Israeli Embassy in Mexico City, and Mexico\u2019s government moved to support South Africa\u2019s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Emiliano Rodr\u00edguez Mega<!-- --> contributed reporting from Mexico City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/03\/world\/americas\/claudia-sheinbaum-jewish-mexico-president.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mexico elected its first Jewish president over the weekend, a remarkable step in a country with one of the world\u2019s largest Catholic populations. Yet if it is a watershed moment for Mexico, it has been overshadowed by another one: President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum will also be the first woman to lead the country. There is another [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/03\/multimedia\/03mexico-jewish-president-tkcb\/03mexico-jewish-president-tkcb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9049,1296,14592,2627],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64799,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64797\/revisions\/64799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}