Ben-Hochfer, Jacob
Son of Leah and Zvi. He was born on May 10, 1911 in Zdolbunov, Russia, and as a child attended a school founded by Tarbut. In 1924 he immigrated to Eretz Israel with his uncle and went to study at the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. Two years later, he moved to Moshav Sejera, where he joined the Haganah. son of-Hochfer was riding a lot of horses and singing and parrot on guitar. He then returned to Tel Aviv to help support his mother and in 1934 began working as an inspector in the sanitation department of the Tel Aviv municipality. In March 1942 he volunteered for the British Army and was assigned to the 462 unit of the Transportation Corps. On April 27, 1943, he sailed with his friends on the ship “Arinapura”, which made its way through a convoy of naval ships in the direction of Malta to participate in the invasion of Europe. On May 1, 1943, when the ship was close to Malta, the German Air Force was attacked and direct hits were made. At the time of the attack, the Jewish volunteers acted exemplary and helped to rescue many of the casualties. However, the ship drowned shortly afterwards, and one hundred and forty of the unit’s soldiers drowned. He left a mother and a sister. The memory room at the Hebrew Gymnasium “Herzliya” contains a memorial booklet for Yaakov. His name was also commemorated in “The Book of Volunteerism,” in the book “Yizkor” by the Jabotinsky Institute and in the “Book of the Year” in 1946. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, a ship-shaped monument was erected in memory of those who were missing. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.
