Berko, Jacob

Son of Rachel and Gedaliah, was born on December 24, 1928 in Haifa and completed the elementary school in Kiryat Haim. When he was ten, he joined the Hanoar Haoved movement and two years later moved to the Mahanot Ha’olim movement, where he was a member until his 18 th birthday. In 1942, he began working in the “Baywatch” garage as an apprentice mechanic and continued his theoretical studies at the “HaNoar HaOved” evening school. In his work he aspired to learn not only the technical aspect of it, but also the theory that belonged to the profession. Jacob was a tall, broad-shouldered boy, full of gaiety and a lover of music, and even played the accordion. The first member of his group was drafted immediately after the United Nations General Assembly resolution on the Partition Plan on November 29. After completing a course for squad commanders, he was attached to the Carmeli Brigade, was transferred to the Western Galilee and accompanied by convoys between Regba and Nahariya. Yaakov vehemently rejected any proposal to transfer him to a less dangerous position. On the afternoon of March 27, 1948, at noon, a convoy of seven vehicles and 90 people left Nahariya to deliver supplies, fortifications and reinforcements to Yiham. Near Kabri, the convoy encountered an Arab ambush. The first armored vehicle managed to break into Yehiam, but the rest of the vehicles were ambushed. The convoy members fought until the evening and under cover of darkness some of them managed to escape, but about half fell in battle. Jacob was among the fallen, in his warriors at the head of his class. He was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Nahariya. With the establishment of the “House of Defense” in Kiryat Haim, the family gave the house a wooden plaque covered with a large wall map of the Land of Israel, with the dedication: “The youth of the chariots and the spaces that faded from his loving Kiryat Hayim. The family undertook to renew the map every half-century.