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Mahala, Jacob

Mahala, Jacob


Son of Hannah and Mahala. Born on January 3, 1914 in Aden, he immigrated to Israel with his family when he was ten years old and continued his studies at the Herzlia High School. His father established two factories, one for soft drinks called “Oneg” and the other for knitting called “Armor”. He gave his seven sons and daughters a national Hebrew education. After Yaakov successfully completed his studies at the Gymnasium, he went to Switzerland and was accepted to the University in Lausanne. After the outbreak of World War II, Yaakov, a British subject, was drafted into the British army and assigned to the medical corps. He served in military hospitals in Haifa and Nazareth and was later sent to serve in Iraq, India and Africa. The military bureaucracy did not recognize his training as a pharmacist and he was forced to perform simple tasks as a medical aid or as a clerk in the drug store. Yaakov served in the British army for about three years, and these were years of mental and physical suffering due to the insensitivity and the bad treatment he received from his superiors. Immediately after undergoing a process of discharge from the British army, he fell ill and died on 30 Tishrei, September 11, 1942. Yaakov was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, leaving parents, three brothers and three sisters. His name is mentioned in the “Encyclopedia of the Rishonim and Sons”.

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