Will Mexico’s new Jewish president improve relations with Israel? - opinion

The sound of the glass ceiling shattering in Mexico was heard around the world as the predominantly Catholic country known for its machismo culture elected a Jewish woman as president.

As a Jewtina leading the nonprofit Fuente Latina, the only organization successfully engaging Hispanic media about Israel, I smash a fair share of glass ceilings as well. My phone has been buzzing with queries about President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum since her victory, as everyone wants to know what this means for Israel. After all, pro-Palestinian protestors set fires at Mexico City’s Israeli embassy just days before the election, and Mexico’s government supports South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

Sheinbaum is a staunch leftist following in the footsteps of her mentor and predecessor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It’s unlikely that her position will change in Israel’s favor anytime soon. Sheinbaum downplays her Jewish heritage in interviews, explaining that while her grandparents escaped persecution in Europe last century, her parents were atheists, and she was raised apart from the Jewish community that numbers around 50,000 amidst a Mexican population of almost 130 million people today.

Israel is hardly a top priority for the 61-year-old scientist-turned-politician who served as Mexico City mayor. She takes office as her country faces immense domestic challenges. But her roots drew fire regardless.

Former president Vicente Fox dubbed her a “Bulgarian Jew,” prompting Sheinbaum to release her birth certificate as proof of her Mexican identity. Others spread sexist tropes and conspiracy theories about Jews on social media. While most Latinos have never met a Jew, antisemitism and anti-Zionism are increasing and even gaining traction among American Hispanic students on campus.

It’s no coincidence. With Latinos projected to comprise 30% of the US population by 2050, Israel’s enemies have this influential demographic firmly in their crosshairs. Iran and Qatar established well-funded news outlets and media campaigns aimed at swaying the 500 million Spanish speakers in the world against the Jewish state. Israel isn’t even in the game.

Watching Israel defamed in Spanish is precisely why I founded Fuente Latina in 2012 from the tiny kitchen in my Jerusalem apartment. To date, we have facilitated tens of thousands of news stories at top Hispanic news outlets and brought hundreds of reporters to experience Israel firsthand. Through tireless work, our woman-led nonprofit of predominantly female media professionals cemented true allies across a hostile landscape.

That’s why our organization was the first phone call for thousands of journalists on October 7th.

We work around the clock, on the ground, and in studios, amplifying Israel’s voice in Spanish worldwide to tell the stories of horror and heroism.

But as October 7th deniers gain wider acceptance, more must be done. Therefore, we are partnering with a non-Jewish Latino nonprofit, the Immigrant Archive Project (IAP), to produce the first-ever documentary about Latino-Israeli October 7th hostages and survivors in Spanish called “Voces del 7 de Octubre - Latino Stories of Survival.” The partnership with IAP means all recordings will be archived at the US Library of Congress and will be submissible to The Hague.

Preserving these testimonies in Spanish is essential to ensure the truth of the massacre is not distorted. Many Latino-Israelis live near the Gaza border, so the community has been deeply impacted by the war. A clip from the film about an Israeli-Argentinean grandmother who evaded capture by discussing soccer legend Lionel Messi with Hamas gunmen went viral.

Major Spanish-language outlets are interested in airing the film, and Fuente Latina is currently raising post-production funds.

Despite the trauma, Israel and Jews worldwide are enduring. Times like these are also an opportunity to regroup and rebuild. It is too early to determine exactly how Mexico-Israel relations will be shaped by Sheinbaum, but it is clear Fuente Latina’s work is necessary now more than ever.

Leah Soibel is the founder and CEO of Fuente Latina. Soibel is a Hispanic-American Israeli who has been working for over two decades to ensure accurate coverage of Israel and the Jewish world in non-Jewish Hispanic media. 

This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Diana Krief.