Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Mexican Jews Welcome Netanyahu — Despite Backing For Trump’s Wall

Mexico’s Jewish community was caught in the cross-hairs this January when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the idea of the United States building a border wall along its southern frontier. But eight months later, the controversy has past, and the community is eagerly anticipating a visit from the Israeli premier.

“It’s all in the past, and it was all settled as a misunderstanding,” Moises Romano Hafif, head of the Mexican Jewish community, told Haaretz. “As a minority, we are extremely happy that he is visiting Mexico… It means a lot that he is stopping by on his way to the United States.”

Mexico is home to 40,000 Jews, and Netanyahu will pass through on a tour of Latin America, which is also bringing him to Brazil and Argentina. The country is Israel’s second-largest trading partner after Brazil.

Netanyahu ignited an international furor when he endorsed President Trump’s border wall idea – with Mexicans expressing outrage at the statement, and the Mexican Jewish community publicly declaring its disagreement.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.