A Hakoah director for 24 years
He was 21, still studying law and not a soccer fan, but Frank Lowy wanted George Farkas to join the Hakoah board ahead of the new club’s opening on Hall St in 1975.
George Farkas and Hakoah president Steven Lowy
George declined the offer, telling Lowy that he would complete his studies and set off for a year overseas.
Two days after he returned to Australia, Frank Lowy’s offer was repeated, and this time the 22-year-old budding barrister accepted.
The attraction was George Farkas’s community service. At the age of 18, he was the youngest member of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies and was the co-founder of the UIA Trendsetters group. As soccer was the original mainstay of the club’s origins, it would appear that what George could do for Hakoah did not warrant soccer skills.
George Farkas became the Honorary Secretary of the Sydney club in 1973. He told J-Wire: “In order to increase the membership for every Sunday for six months, I conducted guided tours of the building under construction with prospective members wearing hard hats, and managed to increase the membership from something like 300 to 1500.”
But George had a purpose for this enthusiasm. He explained: “I saw the potential for Hakoah to be at that time, the meeting spot for the Jewish community and to be a real Jewish community centre.”
George Farkas, Frank Lowy, Andrew Lederer, Howard Lowe and Harold Lehman
Skipping a few years, George described what the club had become. He said: “You’d go to the bistro. There’d be parents, their children, and grandparents. Everybody would meet and get to know each other. Those who didn’t know each other would do so in a short time. It was intergenerational. We formed a young members committee, which created special activities for young members. And those who remember Hall Street, apart from the schnitzels in the bistro, the one thing they vividly remember is the Friday night discourse, not rabbinically sanctioned. Still, the younger generation would have Shabbat dinner at Hakoah and go on to the disco. A lot of relationships started there, and a lot of marriages eventuated.”
George Farkas compared the old club with the new one in White City, scheduled to open in 2027.
He commented: “White City will be the meeting spot of the Sydney Jewish community. We’ve already got 3300 members, and the club hasn’t even opened. It will have so many activities, including basketball, netball, futsal, swimming, football, tennis, pickleball, and paddleball. There’ll be art and music classes, and holiday camps for children during school holidays.
Hakoah’s motto is ‘It’s better to do things together’ in today’s troubled times, where the Jewish community feels marginalised, ignored, harassed, and vilified.”
George Farkas joined the Board around 1972 and served for 10 years. He then served on the Board of the Sydney Jewish Museum before being invited to rejoin the Hakoah Board.
He was scheduled to retire from the Board in 2018, but a members’ meeting extended his term to 2024, which was extended to 2025.
At last month’s AGM, George Farkas resigned after serving as a Hakoah director for a total of 24 years.
He continued: “I’m no longer a director, but I’m on the membership committee and the Governance Committee. I’m involved in all aspects of the legal liquor licensing of the club. The club made me a governor a few years ago as well. President Stephen Lowys says that Hakoah is a bit like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re not allowed out.”
The lowlight of George’s Hakoah memories was the bombing of the club in 1982 and the highlight of the community success enjoyed by the Hall St club.
Hakoah’s future? George Farkas explained: “We did a survey before embarking on this project of roughly 1,900 people, the majority of whom were young. And from memory, around 96% of young people said they wanted Hakoah and what it stood for as a meeting place. That was before October 7.
Now, post October seven, I believe the Sydney Jewish community is almost unanimous in that it needs a place like Hakoah, White City.”
George remains no fan of soccer.
