Several major media sources picked up a story this week from Argentina that was just too juicy to pass up – and as it turns out, it was actually too juicy to be true.
Outlets including Buzzfeed, Haaretz, Huffington Post and The Independent carried the story about Argentine President Christina Fernandez adopting a young Jewish boy as her godson to prevent him from turning into a werewolf. But closer examination of facts from the original story indicate it wasn’t exactly the way the adoption went down.
While President Fernandez did adopt a Jewish boy as a godson this week – in keeping with a tradition dating back 100 years – the werewolf part came from some gaucho folklore.
It seems that the media sources related the story about Fernandez’s adoption with one detailing the folklore tale of the seventh son born to a family transforming into a werewolf at age 13. The legend goes that the son transforms into a werewolf and goes on a killing spree before returning to human form.
Despite the misguided reporting, it did bring to the forefront the godchild adoption process of the president, which is very beneficial indeed to those lucky enouch to be chosen. The adopted kids get to call the president their godparent, receive a gold medal, and get a full educational scholarship until the age of 21.
This year’s lucky child is Yair Tawil, the seventh son of a Lubavitch family, a group of Hasidic Jews. He’s the first Jewish boy to be adopted by an Argentine leader.
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