“I will be the next mayor of Jerusalem, God willing,” said billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak in a Hebrew-language interview with the strictly Orthodox radio station Kol Chai on Wednesday.
Gaydamak, who normally only speaks English or Russian in public, was confident he had the haredi vote. Despite his admittance to not keeping Shabbat or kashrut, he said, “I am haredi, without the kippah”.
When asked about his stance on yeshiva students enlisting to the army, he said, “Why do we need an army? To protect the Jews. Our country is Jewish. If young men don’t study Torah, we won’t be a Jewish country, so why would we even need an army?”
Gaydamak called his purchase of Jerusalem’s Bikur Holim hospital “a mitzvah, not business”, and vowed that it would be the best hospital in the country. “Many doctors promised me they would return if I, Gaydamak, am there,” he said.