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Goldwasser, Jacob

Goldwasser, Jacob


Jacob, the son of Rivka and Meir, was born on March 25, 1925 in Poland, in the city of Szczecin in western Galicia. The eldest son of his parents, brother of Feigla. He grew up in a well-educated and faithful Zionist family. “In the house, there was unrequited love for the Land of Israel,” Dudu said, “for the people, for their culture, for Jewish moral values. “Yaakov excelled in his studies in a Polish elementary school and in a” cheder, “and went on to the Hebrew Gymnasium in Krakow. He excelled in humanitarian and Latin subjects, and every evening he made sure to study Talmud. After World War I, Eastern Galicia was declared a Ukrainian republic, and Western Galicia was annexed to Poland. After a short time, Eastern Galicia also returned to Polish control. The communities of Galicia were the seat of Rabbis of Gedolei Torah, and the Jewish community in Krakow, the capital of Western Galicia, was a spiritual center for the Jewish communities in Poland. The growth of Hassidic and educational movements in Galicia shaped the character of the new East European Jewry. The strength of the Zionist movement also increased, and was characterized by the proliferation of the Zionist parties. Galicia is described in several of the books of the native of the region, SY Agnon, “guest of the night,” “bride’s Knesset,” etc. In the wake of security and economic crises, anti-Semitism in Poland intensified, the situation of Jews in Western Galicia worsened and sanctions and economic boycott were imposed. Western Galicia was occupied by the Germans in September 1939, immediately after the beginning of World War II.Ghettos were set up for Jews in the following months, and most of the Jews of Galicia were sent to extermination in 1943. All of Jacob’s family members were sent to a concentration camp, Yaakov and his parents were killed In May 1945, the Russians liberated him from the Zweitau camp, and immediately after the liberation, Jacob returned by bicycle to Staszyn, and when he learned that his parents and sister had perished in the murder camps, he continued his journey by bicycle to Prague, He presented himself to the British consul, introduced himself as a Palestinian citizen and demanded to “drive him home.” The consul flew him to Paris to clarify his interest there in the British Legation, and from Paris he found his way to the port of Marseilles, On an illegal immigration ship. He wandered at night until he found refuge in one of the kibbutzim, because he did not want to enter the Atlit camp and register as an illegal immigrant, so that the British authorities would not waive an immigration permit. Yaakov moved to live with his uncle Pinchas Goldwasser in Neve Ya’akov, north of Jerusalem. She soon became involved in the life of the house and the environment, loved everyone, worked a lot of household chores and toured Jerusalem. The uncle said: “We went out to see the Jerusalem neighborhoods, we went up to Mount Scopus, and when he saw the buildings of the university and the National Library he felt his Lev pounding. He began his studies in mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1956. After completing his summer vacation, he worked as an electrician in various places in the country and succeeded in his work, and after a year he returned to the university. He soon became one of the most prominent students in the department She worked very hard on literature in these subjects in the university library and in the libraries of foreign scientific institutions(The American Institute, the Dominican Institute, and the Rockefeller Museum) and reached a great knowledge of the bibliography, which helped his friends and teachers. Every morning he would take a bus from Neve Ya’akov via Sheikh Jarrah to Mount Scopus, and in the evening he would return with the needs of the house and books for further reading. “Day and night he sat with the books, with great criticism and earnestness, he tried to discover every detail,” Dudu said, “in a short time he learned about tools and exhibits from prehistoric and biblical times. Needs to be drawn after conclusions that others have concluded … “Jacob submitted comprehensive works to his lecturers, and achieved valuable research in the power of intuition and scientific reasoning based. Thanks to his excellence in studies, he was appointed librarian in the library of Jewish history, and was exempted from tuition fees for the second year of studies. At the beginning of December 1947, at the outbreak of the War of Independence, the studies were stopped and Yaakov devoted himself to keeping his place of residence. In the coming months, he was rarely allowed to come to the library on Mount Scopus. At first he served in the local defense of Neve Ya’akov – together with Atarot, these were isolated points north of Jerusalem, which had suffered Arab attacks since the beginning of the war. Later on, he joined the Haganah, which sent Haganah from Jerusalem for reinforcements, and stood guard against Arab attacks and the hostile “order of the British.” During this period he rejected a proposal from his lecturer to serve in the headquarters, preferring to participate in the protection of his beloved uncle. On the first of Adar I 5708 he was facing a large Arab attack on the village. Dudu said: “Yaakov, in his unique position, never let go of his weapon … He saw the enemy tens of meters away digging in the quarry, and fascinated him so that he would not come near … The position was in the courtyard of the house. “He said. On March 22,1948, Jacob went to Jerusalem to hand over the manuscripts of his research, which he worked on at home between guard and guard, and to bring food to relatives and neighbors at the besieged spot. While in Jerusalem, he was looking for housing for the Dudu family in the city center, and even bought his uncle’s little Purim gifts for his daughters. Two days later he asked to return, and on March 24, 1948, he received a large number of requests in the convoy of supplies sent to Neve Ya’akov and Atarot. The two convoy cars were stopped by mines planted by Arabs near the village of Shuafat, and among the Arabs and among the defenders were sixteen members of the convoy, including Yaakov. Jacob was twenty-three years old when he fell. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Sanhedria, Jerusalem. “I have not taught the artist that fate will be so cruel to this soft boy,” eulogized his uncle, “who had a little time to rest in his short and haggard life … Much could have been given to the land he loved, Jacob’s feelings remained in the scriptures. His research on “The Journey of Siamese in the Land of Israel” (which deals with the relations between Israel and Egypt during the time of King Solomon) was published in the Yedioth Ahronoth Exploration Society of Israel in 1949. The space is “the last bastion.” Holocaust survivors who survived the Holocaust in the ghettos and / or concentration and extermination camps and / or in flight and hiding in territories occupied by the Nazis and / or fighting alongside members of the underground or partisans In the Nazi-occupied territories who immigrated to Israel during or after World War II, they wore uniforms and fell in the Israeli army.

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