Argentina’s President Javier Milei will be awarded a $1 million Genesis Prize grant during his visit to Israel next month.
The staunchly pro-Israel leader is to receive the prize during his June 11 speech at the Knesset in Jerusalem. The award was announced in January in recognition of his unequivocal support for the Jewish state.
Organisers say Milei will donate the prize money to launch an initiative aimed at improving diplomatic relations between Israel and Latin American countries and fighting antisemitism in the region.
Established in 2013, the prize honours individuals "for their outstanding professional achievements, contribution to humanity and deep commitment to Jewish values."
Previous winners have included business owner and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actors Michael Douglas and Barbra Streisand, violinist Itzhak Perlman, sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Soviet political prisoner Natan Sharansky.
Milei is being recognised for reversing Argentina’s decades-long history of anti-Israel votes at the United Nations, designating both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organisations and reopening investigations into the bombings of Jewish and Israeli targets in Argentina in the 1990s.
He has also repeatedly pledged to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem.
Milei also has strong ties to the Jewish faith as well as Israel. According to an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais last year, Milei reads the Torah every single day and regularly converses on Whatsapp with Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish, the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Sephardi Moroccan Community of Argentina.
