The son of Liba (Lubov) Schneiderman and Lizer Katz. He was born on 27.2.1951 in Tbilisi, USSR. Yaakov grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia. When he was two years old his parents separated, his mother remarried and decided to send her son to boarding school. At the boarding school Yaakov suffered greatly, and at the age of sixteen he set out on his own, began working and completed his high school for working youth in the city of Tbilisi. From his youth, he studied physics enthusiastically, and in 1969 was accepted to study physics at the University of Odessa. Since his mother had no financial resources and could not support him, Yaakov Kasber worked in the port of Odessa and tried to finance his studies. After a while he had to stop them because of the difficulty of supporting himself and studying at the same time. Despite his hardships and daily struggle for survival, Yaakov took part in sports and Gadna activities, and the Zionist youth movement took such a significant place in his life that he moved to Novosibirsk, Siberia, where he worked and saved, and in 1971 he began studying at the Technical University of Novosibirsk. And in June of that year he took his first steps in his scientific career at the Novosibirsk Scientific Institute, in a semiconductor study, in October 1973. He was a graduate of the University of Novosibirsk,In June 1974, their eldest daughter Larissa and Anat arrived in April 1978. At the end of the 1970s, Yaakov and Irina decided to immigrate to Israel, but their request was repeatedly rejected by the authorities. He loved classical music, especially opera, and played guitar, and was an artist and painter of semicircles for theater performances at the Institute of Physics in Akadem-Gorodok, Siberia, according to tradition The special scientists of this institution: Once a year they raise operas and Levels. Jacob loved to read, in his home library he collected more than 10,000 books. He preferred classical and modern poetry and literature, but he was proud of his collection of philosophy books; he kept rare books that did not even exist in the Novosibirsk State Library. Later, when he received the desired authorization to leave the Soviet Union, he could not bring the books without the special permission of the Central Library in Moscow named after Lenin. Their answer was: “The books you want to take with you in your immigration are all the treasures of the Russian people.” Jacob did not allow himself to throw away the books, he took the books to used bookstores in Moscow and offered them. None of them wanted to buy philosophy books because of low demand; And when Jacob got the money for the cab, he had to abandon the books on the sidewalk, hoping passersby would adopt them. As a physicist, Jacob conducted a number of interesting studies in Russia, and later in Israel as well. Despite being a talented scientist who published several articles on the findings of his research in well-known American and Soviet scientific journals, he was dismissed from the Novosibirsk Scientific Institute; Since he submitted an application for immigration to Israel and was recognized as an active Zionist. After his dismissal, from 1986 to 1984, he worked as a technical support engineer in a computerized information center of the Health Department in the Novosibirsk region. After five years of refusing to emigrate, the family moved to Dushanbe. During these two years, until 1988, Yaakov worked as a technical support engineer at the Computer Center for Southern Geological and Geological Investigation. From his youth Yaakov was an enthusiastic and devoted Zionist.He studied Hebrew on his own and quickly became an information center on Israel and Hebrew studies in Dushanbe, and also organized Hebrew classes and language courses. He himself taught Hebrew and always spoke passionately about the obligation to immigrate to Israel. Many Jews gathered at his home. Irina and he continued to fight for the realization of their right to emigrate to Israel. Among other things, they participated in demonstrations of families refused to immigrate to Moscow. In 1988, Jacob organized a joint demonstration for Jews and Germans in Dushanbe, to which they were not permitted to emigrate to their countries. The KGB, the main intelligence and secret police organization of the Soviet Union, published a large article in the “Communists of Tajikistan”, which presented Jacob and his family as morally repulsive, and was also quoted on the Katz family’s telephone line, and when Yaakov wanted to fly to demonstrate for human rights In Moscow, his passport and plane tickets were “stolen” at the airport, and even his children were spared, beaten and humiliated in school when the beating children shouted at them: “traitors to the nation, dirty Jews.” The family received support from four American congressmen from the Jewish lobby in Britain and Israel; Only in May 1988, after a protracted struggle and assistance from then US President Ronald Reagan, The family received the confirmation of the hoped-for aliyah, and from the moment the request was submitted, seven years passed, and frustration and great hope were involved in their story: The Israeli press published an article about the family’s immigration on August 24, 1988. , Sent packages and encouraged their spirit Shortly after the family moved from Ashdod to Jerusalem, Jacob and Irina continued to persuade more and more Jews in Russia to immigrate to Israel and participate in the fulfillment of the Zionist dream. From his first day as an Israeli citizen, Jacob sought work, and within two months he was accepted to work in Israel by profession – a rare achievement among the Soviet refuseniks, because they usually came to Israel exhausted from their long and stubborn struggle. Yaakov succeeded in this, among other things because he was an excellent scientist and because of his mastery of Hebrew. From 1988 to 1991, Yaakov worked for the company “SayTech” in Jerusalem as an engineer-scientist. Yaakov, who was a strong body and soul and an expert on martial arts, joined the Home Front Command’s reserve unit – a national rescue and rescue unit. He participated in a number of rescue missions in Israel and abroad: with assistance in rescuing the rubble after the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya in 1998, after the earthquake in Turkey in 1999 and the collapse of the Versailles Hall in Jerusalem in 2001. Although he was able to retire from reserve duty because of his age, he loved the IDF, and especially the service in the Rescue and Rescue Unit, where he immigrated to Israel in the 1990s and helped them during the first years of their absorption in Israel. Since 1989 he has been a member of the Temple Mount Faithful Movement and the Land of Israel, and he believed that the Jewish people was the true treasure of the country, and was one of the founders of the Technological Incubator in Kiryat Arba. 1994 as the manager of a research and development project, and in the greenhouse he created a precise measuring instrument for the cement industry Irina feared for the lives of her children in the face of terror attacks in Israel during those years, and began to look for work in the United States or Europe.In December 1999 the couple divorced and in January 2000 Irina left Israel for the United States. Jacob moved to live in the settlement of Adora, west of Hebron, and despite his Zionist dreams he missed his family and his peopleTime strengthened the connection with Irina and his children who moved to the United States, with his eldest daughter and grandson. Jacob and Irina’s relationship was close, and the two supported each other in difficult moments. When their daughter, Anat, graduated from a college in New Jersey in May 2002, he went there and was present at the graduation ceremony. In the last eight years of his life, Yaakov worked at the laser equipment development company in Rishon Letzion, “ITL, an international laser technology company.” He ran the company’s research and development department and devoted himself to physics. He developed and manufactured a number of precision measuring instruments and night vision devices sold to various companies around the world. He conducted research projects and supported the production line for instruments for the United States, Scotland and Israel. In February 2002 his son Yehuda-Daniel arrived to visit him in Adora. During the seven-year-old’s stay in Israel, the terrorist attack in which his father was killed occurred. On Saturday, 27 April 2002, around 9:00 AM, two terrorists dressed in IDF uniform entered Adora, entered a number of houses and shot at the residents, many of whom were in the synagogue at the time, and others were in their homes. When the first shots were heard, Yaakov ran to his house to bring his weapons, as a member of the security forces, while placing his son in the arms of one of the women in the synagogue. Of them, but they managed to escape from the town, and in the battle with the terrorists Yaakov was injured, the ambulance was late to come and resuscitation attempts were no longer successful. He was brought to rest at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Har Hamenuhot in Jerusalem, leaving behind a former wife, two daughters and a son. First Sergeant Arik Becker, Katya Greenberg and Daniel Shefi were killed in the attack, while seven others were injured
