An Israeli businessman who was born and raised in Guatemala has thrown his hat into the ring to run for the President of his home country in its upcoming elections.

The candidate, Yitzchak Farhi aged 58, moved to Israel twelve years ago after he had been the leader of the country’s Jewish community. Farhi, lead the Chevra Kadisha in the country and ran the community institutions for the 1,200 Jews who call the country home.

The elections are slated for June of this year and Farhi is not considered to be one of the front-runners in the election. He will be returning to Guatemala for the election but promised that should he not be elected, he will move back to Israel.

Farhi’s candidacy is in thanks to an interview that he gave on a Guatemalan television show that aired some two months ago according to a report by Arutz Sheva news service.  during the interview, Farhi was asked about the secret of Israel’s success and replied that “ideals and unity” were behind the country’s rise. During the interview, he suggested that Guatemala could also benefit from adopting these principles. Following the interview, he received an offer from the ViVa party to run as their candidate and he announced his candidacy late last week.

“My four fellow candidates have all run in the past and they failed,” a hopeful Farhi said to Israeli media outlets this past weekend.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)