Alba, Yaakov
Yaakov, son of Zimbol and Yehoshua, was born on February 19, 1951 in Turkey and immigrated to Israel in the 1960s. He began his studies in an elementary school in his hometown of Turkey. After immigrating to Israel, he continued to study at the high school and at the Ulpan in Kibbutz Amir, and later studied at the Ulpan in Ramat Hashofet. Yaakov was an accepted and admired boy for his friendship, kindness, and willingness to help others. He was known for his integrity and honesty, qualities that earned him many friends and had a loyal friend and evil. When he was thirteen, he went to work to help support the family. He was a dedicated worker and was respected by his employers for his diligence and loyalty to his work. Yaakov grew up and was educated in the spirit of the ideas of the Zionist movement and as a child he recognized the deep connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. He followed the events in Israel and saw himself as a partner to everything that took place in it. After the Six-Day War ended, he decided to immigrate to Israel. He came to Israel alone and took his first steps in a studio on the kibbutz. In the first few days he fell in love with his new country and began sending long letters to his parents, in which he tried to persuade them to follow in his footsteps. Indeed, after his arrival in Israel, the family reunited when his parents, brother and grandmother joined him. The joy of reunion and the reunion made it easier for the family members to absorb the absorption and adaptation to the new place and the family settled in Ra’anana. Yaakov was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in mid-November 1969 and assigned to the Artillery Corps after completing basic training, and then completed a course for team commanders and was sent to serve in an artillery battalion in Sinai. He was an excellent team commander, a disciplined soldier and an outstanding professional, with the skill to operate the sophisticated tool and command the crew. At the beginning of August 1972, Yaakov was discharged from the regular army service and assigned to the reserve unit of the Artillery Corps, where he joined the IAI staff, helping to support the family and establishing his status. In the Yom Kippur War his unit participated in the battles of the containment and infiltration of the Egyptians in the northern sector of the Suez Canal. In a battle to stop an attack on the Egyptians, on 18 Tishrei (14.10.1973), Yaakov was killed and was brought to rest in the cemetery in Ra’anana. The commander of the unit wrote: “Yaakov served in my unit for six months, and at that time I recognized him as an outstanding, quiet, intelligent and devoted soldier.” Raanana residents published a pamphlet in memory of the city’s fallen soldiers which includes things about the image of Yaakov.
