Memory Office: G. Žakas
Gercas Žakas, chairperson of the Kaunas Jewish Community, tells us about his family, career as a sportsman and the cultural amateur Jewish activities in the Trade Union Palace of Kaunas (now Kaunas Cultural Centre) during the Soviet times.
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“There was a Russian elementary school next to my home and I was brought to study there. My Lithuanian grammar has remained weak to this day. Many Jewish people would enrol their children to Russian schools, because they thought that children would go to study somewhere further.”
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“I attended school in the Old Town. I graduated the 11th high school in Nemuno Street. When I graduated, I started playing professional football. I was a promising player who played in the Lithuanian team. I was also invited to play in Ukraine. I wanted to be involved in sports, even though my parents were not very supportive of this idea. They said that I would not win bread doing it.”
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“Dancing was very popular. Just dancing, no drinking. It was from 8.00 PM to 11.00 PM, and after midnight, only if you managed to get inside. During the Soviet times, it was not that easy to get inside cafés on Fridays and Saturdays. Massive queues: either you had to book a table or pay a fee to the doorman.”
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“In 1940, basically all Jewish organisations were forbidden by the Soviets. The only one remaining was the Jewish Religious Community of Kaunas. I remember my father saying: be careful, watch out what you are saying at the Synagogue. Basically, all amateur activities had to go through a selection process. There had to be songs in Russian and Lithuanian. Amateur activities were allowed, but I am almost completely sure that there were people infiltrated in them as well.”
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“Director Judelis Rondaris decided to create a drama in Jewish language (Yiddish) and he needed people who new Jewish (Yiddish). I could speak it quite well and I liked acting. The play was called “Shalom Aleichem”. We were envied by dancers and singers, because they wanted to sing and dance more. They met our drama with hostility, but residents of Kaunas liked it very much. Our audience was not only Jewish, but also Lithuanian and of mixed families. There are quite a few mixed families among us.”
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“In 1989, we unexpectedly went to the 13th Maccabiah Games that took place in Israel. There were 50–60 of us. We participated in the games of football, tennis, table tennis, swimming, chess. We wanted to represent Lithuania, even though there were attempts to prove it to the organisers that our team represented the Soviet Union.”
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“At some point, it was like slavery. We neither could go to Israel nor visit our relatives. The Soviet Union was like a closed camp. I remember the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games. The countries going one after the other, and it seemed endless. When we started, at first, they stopped us, then allowed us to proceed. The Soviet music started to play. Forty thousand people stood up. They applauded us, shouted, cried, told us that we were finally free. I felt shiver it would be difficult to explain. I remember it to this day.”
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GERCAS ŽAKAS
Football player, coach and referee Gercas Žakas was born in 1952, the family of Geta Užpicaitė Žakienė and Kalmanas Žakas, a family of a mirror maker. He grew up in the Old Town of Kaunas together with an older brother Jakovas, who left for Israel in 1972. His maternal grandmother was Anna Kronionaitė, his grandfather Gercelis Užpicas and his father, the great-grandfather of Gercas had a small oil pressing factory. His paternal grandfather Jankelis Žakas was a farmer. In childhood, Gercas spoke Yiddish and studied Hebrew. During his studies and afterwards, he was a professional football player, playing for the team of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and the team of radio factory Banga. He joined Jewish amateur cultural activities in 1976, played at the orchestra and was an event conferencier. Gercas Žakas has been the chairperson of Kaunas Jewish Community since 2000.
Date of the interview: 02/05/2018