Profiling Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s Jewish Presidential Candidate Uriel Peizer - The Jerusalem Post
go to original October 29, 2023

Claudia Sheinbaum – the first woman elected governor of Mexico City – waves upon her arrival to be sworn in, Dec. 2018. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP)

Former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum is leading the polls with double digits in the run for presidential office. In 2018, she made history when she was elected the first Jewish mayor of Mexico City. Since then, her popularity has surged, leading her to step down from her mayoral role in pursuit of a presidential nomination within her party.

The 61-year-old Sheinbaum was born in Mexico City to Mexican parents, but her grandparents came from Europe. In the 1920s, one set of grandparents, identifying as Ashkenazi Jews, emigrated from Lithuania. Two decades later, in the 1940s, her other grandparents, Sephardi Jews, went to Mexico from Bulgaria.

While unaffiliated with any Jewish organization or synagogue in Mexico, Sheinbaum, who defines herself as not connected to Judaism and not practicing it, recalls celebrating the Jewish holidays with her family during her childhood.

Addressing a gathering of Jewish women in 2018, she expressed pride in her heritage, saying she’s proud of those origins while reminiscing about her upbringing, noting, “We celebrated all the holidays at my grandparents’ house,” and sharing several fond memories connected to those occasions.

Mexican-Jewish news outlet Enlace Judio published excerpts of Sheinbaum’s speech in 2018.

“Both my last names [Sheinbaum and Pardo] are of Jewish origin,” she said. “My paternal grandparents emigrated from Lithuania, and my maternal grandparents were Sephardi, from Bulgaria,” she pointed out.

In an interview earlier this year, Sheinbaum’s mother, biologist Annie Pardo, considered it possible that her daughter would become president of the country in 2024.

“Claudia is evidently in a position where she could be the first [female] president of Mexico. It is easy for me to say, but this has been the product of hard, constant work, and dedication,” Pardo told La Jornada.

Mexico is home to approximately 40,000 Jews, making it the 14th-largest Jewish community globally as of 2020, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC). The community is known for its strong traditionalist values, encompassing various denominations and ethnicities, from Orthodox to Conservative and including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Levantine Jews. It is recognized as one of the most active Jewish communities worldwide.

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