Ben-Israel (Moskowitz), Yaakov

Son of Beila and Israel-Haim. He was born on July 4, 1904 in Harlow, Romania. His father was a ritual slaughterer and the youth was educated on the values ​​of Judaism and Zionism. He first studied in a room, then in an urban elementary school and an urban high school. As he grew older, he refused to engage in commerce like most of his friends, and turned to manual labor, thus serving as a model for many young men who followed him. When he was 20, he joined Hechalutz. In the summer of that year he went with his group for agricultural training with a Christian landowner, and in the winter the group moved to the city of Iasi, where he continued to work as a city pioneer. In April 1929, Yaakov immigrated to Eretz Israel to join the “Bossel” group – a commune of workers from the Fourth Aliya in Hadera. The group’s condition was severe and the lack of work, as well as the fever that affected many, including Yaakov, led to its dissolution. Jacob moved to the streets and worked in the orchards. In 1929 he married his girlfriend who came to Israel at that time and the two moved to Sha’arayim near Rehovot and worked together in the orchard. Yaakov was active in Histadrut institutions and was one of the initiators and founders of an escrow and savings fund for workers, consumers, and an educational home for workers’ children. At the same time, he was active in the Haganah. After the riots of 1929, the Yishuv decided to establish settlements and Yaakov worked to organize a group of friends that founded Kfar Gvaton in 1933. At the outbreak of World War II, he volunteered for the British army fighting the Nazis, was recruited to the Hebrew Transport Company 462 and participated in battles in the Western Desert. On the 5th of Nisan, 5703 (5703), he drowned with 139 other soldiers from his unit on board the ship “Arinapura”, which was hit by a German air bomb on its way from Alexandria, Egypt to Malta, in a convoy of Allied naval ships bound for Sicily. He left a wife and son, three brothers and a sister. A ship-shaped monument was erected at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, and next to it is a water pool with the names of those missing in the background. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.