1. Arcadi Aleksandrovich Gaydamak is a Russian-born French-Israeli businessman, philanthropist, and President of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia.
24 Facts About Arcadi Gaydamak
1. 2.
Arcadi Gaydamak holds Israeli, Canadian, French, and Russian nationalities, as well as a diplomatic passport from Angola.
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Arcadi Gaydamak invested in real estate in France and Israel, in Kazphosphate - the world's largest phosphate producer, in a gold mine and a metal processing plant in Kazakhstan, in the Russian weekly Moskovskiye Novosti, in food distribution in Russia and in oil fields and granaries in Angola.
4.
Arcadi Gaydamak was born in Moscow, the capital of the USSR.
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Arcadi Gaydamak lived on Kibbutz Beit HaShita, and studied Hebrew at an ulpan.
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Arcadi Gaydamak said he originally intended to serve in the Israeli Army, but ended up moving to France, where he opened a translation bureau.
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Arcadi Gaydamak is married to Irene Tzirolnicova, with whom he has three children.
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Arcadi Gaydamak speaks Portuguese and Hebrew on a basic level.
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In December 2008, Arcadi Gaydamak returned to Russia, settling in Moscow.
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In February 2007, seeing the social issues in Israel, Arcadi Gaydamak founded a party devoted to socio-economic issues, which he named Social Justice.
11.
Arcadi Gaydamak ran for mayor of Jerusalem in November 2008, but his party won no seats on the city council.
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Arcadi Gaydamak approached the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, Palestinian political figures and media, and came away with a near endorsement.
13.
In July 2005, Arcadi Gaydamak became sponsor of the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team.
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Arcadi Gaydamak is the patron of several Jewish charities and president of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia, Russia's oldest Jewish umbrella group.
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Arcadi Gaydamak later sold the club to Ali al-Faraj in 2009.
16.
Arcadi Gaydamak had purchased the Russian Moskovskie Novosti newspaper in 2004, fired some senior journalists, and changed the paper's mandate to a firmly pro-government one, appointing a pro-Putin journalist as editor-in-chief.
17.
In June 2007, Arcadi Gaydamak negotiated a deal to buy the non-kosher supermarket chain Tiv Taam.
18.
In July 2009, Arcadi Gaydamak announced his decision to give up the ownership of Beitar Jerusalem in favor of Itzik Kornfein and Guma Aguiar.
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Arcadi Gaydamak has donated to many Israeli organizations, including Magen David Adom and Hatzolah.
20.
Arcadi Gaydamak pledged $50 million to the Jewish Agency for Israel, but withdrew the offer.
21.
Arcadi Gaydamak was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison.
22.
In November 2015, Arcadi Gaydamak began a 3-year sentence in prison.
23.
In October 2009, Arcadi Gaydamak was indicted in the Tel Aviv District Court on suspicions of money laundering through Bank Hapoalim, together with several managers of the bank and the Italian-Israeli businessman Nahum Galmor.
24.
Arcadi Gaydamak won two citations from the French government: Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Merite and the Ordre du Merite agricole for helping to rescue two captured French pilots in the War in Bosnia in the 1990s, as well as two French intelligence officers captured by rebel factions in the Caucasus.