Cohen, Yaakov (“Koko”)

Son of Shlomo and Esther. From a family of rabbis and Torah scholars. Who came from the Spanish exile. Was born on August 18, 1947 in the city of Oujda, Morocco. In 1956, when he immigrated with his parents to Israel, he studied at the “Koshet” elementary school in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the family settled in when their father was appointed. Jacob was a pleasant child and excelled in religious studies, especially because the influence of his father was great. But aside from the ways of religion and tradition in which he used to go, there were signs of culture and way of life that he acquired in his father’s house. He loved the students and never posed any problem. After graduating from elementary school, he was accepted to the agricultural high school in Kfar Haroeh, where he studied for three years, but the image of his older brother Abraham (ibid. From the “Yeshiva” and entered the Naval School, and with the encouragement of his older brother he joined Gadna-Yam and at the Naval School, he passed all the stages and finally turned to the electronics industry in accordance with his talents. After completing his military service in the Navy in April 1965, he completed all his training and attained the rank of sergeant, and after a year of service he was sent to a high-level wireless course and completed his compulsory military service in the Israel Navy. Yaakov, like his brother Abraham, found his death in the drowning of the destroyer “Eilat” when Egyptian missiles hit her in front of a Romanian beach in northern Sinai on 18 October 1967. In the end, He was injured when he was in the water after jumping from the destroyer and he rode in the water and asked his friends around him if they saw his brother, but no one could answer. The rescuers found him wounded and when they wanted to put him on a helicopter, Yaakov told him that he was not seriously wounded and that others should be rescued, secretly hoping that he would find his brother Avraham, who was told that he had heard him recite psalms after he had been wounded, Tel Hashomer, saying that he wanted to be rewarded for his brother Abraham – but Abraham was no longer alive, and he was brought to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem next to his brother’s grave. In the book “Maalot Giborim” edited by Israel Erlich, several pages were dedicated to his memory.