ZAK, ABRAM

ZAK, ABRAM (d. 1893), Russian financier. Zak was born in Bobruisk. An autodidact, he achieved great proficiency in mathematics and foreign languages. He occupied high posts in various financial institutions, and as chairman of the board of the Discount and Loan Bank of Petersburg, he made it the most powerful financial institution of the Russian capital. Zak was often consulted by the State Council and other official bodies on questions of finance, economics and railroad exploitation. He was offered the post of assistant minister of finance with the promise of promotion if he would convert to Christianity, but he refused. He was a member of the Jewish delegation to Czar Alexander III after the pogroms of 1881. He was active in the Jewish community and a member of the society for the Promotion of Culture among Jews, distinguishing himself by the great support he gave to Jewish students. Like many of the wealthy Jews of Russia he was opposed to Jewish emigration from Russia and to the establishment of a Jewish National Home. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Weisenberg, in: YE 7, 659–60; E. Tcherikower, in: Yidishe Shriften 3 (1939), 109, 120; L. Greenberg, The Jews in Russia, 1 (1944), 173; ibid., 2, (1951), 173.