Argentina’s Kirchner adopts godson to prevent a werewolf?

Argentina’s president, Cristina Kirchner, has adopted a Jewish godson to prevent him turning into a werewolf …..

Or so many news outlets thought, but the “Guardian” quickly pushed out a story debunking that claim saying that “the chance meeting of a Latin American president with a colourful myth too good to fact-check proved irresistible for many.”

Let me explain ….

According to an old Argentine legend: The seventh son, born after six boys without any girls in-between to a family, becomes a werewolf whose bite can turn others into a werewolf as well.

This legend is said to have been so widely accepted that families allegedly started to abandon, give up for adoption, or even go as far as to kill their own sons.

But according to Argentine historian Daniel Balmaceda, who the Guardian quoted in their article, there is no link between the two traditions.

“The local myth of the lobizón is not in any way connected to the custom that began over 100 years ago by which every seventh son (or seventh daughter) born in Argentina becomes godchild to the president,” he was quoted saying.

The law only applied to the biological children of Catholic families until the enacting of a presidential decree in 2009, which allows children from other religions to qualify — like Judaism.

After the change, the parents of seven boys — they had written to the country’s president back in 1993 but were unfortunately turned down — again petitioned Kirchner, and this time she agreed.

Now she is the adopted mother of Iair Tawil, a member of a Chabad-Lubavitch family and the first Jewish godson of a president in Argentina’s history.

Yo no lo sabía, pero su visita coincidía con la celebración de Hanukkah. El papá, decía que no era una casualidad… pic.twitter.com/o3y5E17Gew

— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) December 23, 2014

“Haaretz,” reported that she delivered this statement in the form of seven tweets:

“It was magical to receive Iair Tawil, the first presidential godson in national history to profess the Jewish faith. Iair, 21, is completely sweet. His family, marvelous. His mother Reina Ester. His father, Salomón, a rabbi. His brothers: Rafael, Eliel, Eitan. I didn’t know, but his visit coincided with the celebration of Hanukkah. His father said it was no coincidence. He was right. They brought me the gift of a menorah. They asked me to light the candles, and for Iair to say the prayer. A very special moment. Later, they told me to blow them out and make a wish. Don’t even dream I’m going to tell you what it was.”

Y a Iair, que hiciera el rezo. Un momento muy especial. Después me dijeron que tenía que apagarlas y pedir un deseo… pic.twitter.com/31ThMLjULn — Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) December 23, 2014

So maybe we never had to worry about Tawil transforming to a half-man-half-beast due to some curse, but that legend makes for a better plot than some other legends about the seventh son in the family.

Mazel Tov!

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