Kirchner adopts Jewish godson to stop him from turning into werewolf

[RogueBeaver]

No, this is not The Onion. Rather a tradition dating to 1907.

[Indy Texas]

According to the article, the fact that he's Jewish is irrelevant. It's the fact that he's the seventh-born son that's the key issue. But, yeah, still very weird even with that context.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

He could still become a werewolf. The point of the tradition is to make sure the werewolf boy isn't killed or abandoned.  They only recently opened up this tradition to seventh-born Jews and girls. Presumably there's some sort of recently enacted Title IX for werewolf curses.

[Foucaulf]

Now the Graun has reported that the werewolf connection is totally made up - the lobison legend was started by cowboys, while the adoption custom started with Russian immigrants in the 20th century who claimed the Tsar would do the same thing. Either way, the practice was popularized by the Peron regimes.

There's also a good comment that December 28 is Holy Innocent's Day, which is celebrated in Latin America with pranks and jokes. The poor anglophone intern who heard of this story must have fell for it.