Carlos Escude, 72, Driven To Judaism By Argentine Economic Crisis
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — In April, as much of the world introduced limits on movement and commerce in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus, Argentinean political theorist Carlos Escude waged a one-man protest outside his home in Buenos Aires.
In a video that the newspaper Perfil described as “bizarre,” Escude can be seen on the sidewalk in a mask, a cane hanging over his arm as he bangs on a kitchen pan and inveighs against a city plan to require anyone over 70 to get a permit before they could walk the street. (The city eventually backed away from the plan.) Escude hung a sign around his neck identifying him as a 71-year-old.
On his Facebook page, Escude compared the plan to Nazi curfews on Jews confined to ghettos. “I prefer a death from coronavirus rather than a life protected by [Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez] Larreta,” he wrote.
On New Year’s Day, Escude succumbed to COVID-19 after a two-month battle against the illness. He was 72.
His wife, Monica La Madrid, died of COVID-19 on Oct. 1, 2020.
Born into a Catholic family in Buenos Aires in 1948, Escude earned a degree in sociology from the Universidad Catolica Argentina in 1973 and went on to study at Yale on a Fulbright Fellowship, where he earned a doctorate in political science in 2003. That same year, Trent University in Canada declared him “likely the most distinguished political theorist in Latin America.”
As a foreign policy advisor to the Argentinean government in the early 1990s, Escude developed the doctrine of peripheral realism, which dictated that weaker states like Argentina ought not seek significant autonomy from global superpowers.
In late 2008, Escude converted to Judaism through the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, an affiliate of the American Conservative movement. Escude discussed his conversion extensively in television appearances and in his writings. He also posted his conversion certificate on his website as well as a note from a local plastic surgeon and mohel, or ritual circumciser, attesting that he had undergone circumcision, as required of men wishing to convert. Escude adopted the Hebrew name Najman ben Abraham Avinu in honor of Nahmanides, the 13th century Catalan scholar.
Escude explained that he was motivated in part to make symbolic compensation for the “ancestors of all Spaniards and descendants of current Spaniards, who were forced to convert to Christianity under penalty of exile or the stake.” He also wrote that the 2001 economic crisis was a spiritual turning point, declaring that the anguish of the situation led him “to think about my God.”
“These spiritual upheavals were a major driver for seeking refuge in a formal religion,” he wrote in an essay collection entitled “Why I’m Jewish.”
Escude was buried on Sunday in a family vault at a non-Jewish cemetery in Recoleta, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
The post Carlos Escude, 72, driven to Judaism by Argentine economic crisis appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
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. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.