Argentina’s President Adopted a Jewish Child to Stop Him Turning into a Werewolf: Facts

Story:

Argentina’s President Adopted a Jewish Child to Stop Him Turning into a Werewolf

Other Versions

President of Argentina adopts Jewish godson to stop him turning into a werewolf

Facts Analysis:

According to a bizarre story doing online since few years, Argentina President has adopted a Jewish Godson to Stop him Turning into a Werewolf. Although there’s an old belief associated to a Curse, the claim as such is not a fact.

Picture Suggesting Argentina’s President Adopted a Jewish Child to Stop Him Turning into a Werewolf — Argentina’s President Adopted a Jewish Child to Stop Him Turning into a Werewolf

Origin of Story & Actual Facts

The claim in question has been around online since late 2014; even some news outlets reported that Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has become godmother of a Jewish baby to stop him from becoming a Werewolf. On 23 December 2014 the Argentina President has in fact announced that she had adopted a young Jewish man as her godson, but it was simply a part of a tradition, misinterpreted by multiple news reports.

According to an Argentine folklore, about the legend of Luison, Luisõ or Lobison, the seventh son of a family is prone to fall victim to a curse that will turn him into a werewolf-like creature called “el lobizón” when he turns 13. Argentine historian Daniel Balmaceda told The Guardian (theguardian.com) in 2014 that Argentina has a custom that began over 100 years ago, by which every seventh son (or seventh daughter) born in Argentina becomes godchild to the president. The historian also said that this custom is not connected to the local myth of the lobizón; a certain child turning into a werewolf. The stories about lobizón seem to be adapted from the older European werewolf legends in the 19th century.

Picture of Luison, Luisõ or Lobison — Luison, Luisõ or Lobison

By tradition, the seventh son (or daughter) born to an Argentine family is eligible to become the godson (or daughter) of the president. However, in Catholic Argentina, the honour of presidential god-children is only given to those in which seven sons are born consecutively, with no daughters in between. Until December 2014, the honour had only been bestowed on Christian babies, when a 21-year old son of a rabbi (a Jewish scholar) Yair Tawil became the country’s first Jewish presidential godson in Argentina’s history. Yair Tawil’s parents, Shlomo and Nehama Tawil, having seven boys, wrote a letter to the president in 1993 asking for the honour. Becoming a godson won Yair Tawil a gold medal as well as a full educational scholarship.

So the claim that Argentina’s President adopted a Jewish godson to stop him turning into a werewolf is a hoax.