Giladi (Antipov), Yaakov

Yaakov (Antipov) son of Rochel and Yehoshua Giladi was born on April 10, 1928, in Tel Aviv. He tried to make things as easy as possible for his mother, who was single and worked hard for her livelihood. When he returned home from “action” in the late hours of the night, he would sneak tiptoe so she wouldn’t wake up. Yaakov grew up to be a healthy and cheerful young man. He joined the youth group “Gordonia”, moved to the “United Movement” and in 1946 left its training enlisted in the Palmach.
Yaakov participated in the struggle against the British and in various courses and specialized in commandos. Yaakov served in Kfar Giladi, Kfar Blum and Kfar Menahem. In the beginning of the War of Independence, his wish was that the war would soon be over. Yaakov was transferred to Jerusalem, participated in the conquest of Sheikh Jarrah and halted the Jordanian Legion armored vehicles from advancing. He survived the dangers of escorting convoys to Jerusalem and fighting with the Arabs who attacked them, and when he arrived in Jerusalem with the first convoy that broke through, he wrote: “I have never felt such happiness”. During Yaakov’s first break he took a short vacation to his mother in Tel Aviv, then returned to Tzrifin, where he was killed by a shell held in his hand on the 23rd of Sivan, June 30, 1948, and was brought to rest in the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery.