Mendel, and Jacob-Menachem

The only son of Moses and Bilha. He was born on March 19, 1949 in Pardes Hanna. He was named after his father’s grandfather who perished in the Holocaust, and after his maternal grandfather, who was one of the founders of Pardes Hanna. He spent his childhood in the village and spent four years studying in the local religious elementary school. Everyone recognized him as a lively and determined child, always ready to be the first and foremost to perform various missions. When he was 10 years old, the family moved to Bnei Brak because she saw this city as an appropriate place to educate Jacob-Menachem, or Yaki, in the spirit of Israel-Saba. Yaaki graduated from the Maalot elementary school in Bnei Brak as a member of the Torah department. After completing his studies, he joined the ultra-Orthodox Ezra youth movement, and in the framework of which he thought of embarking on the realization of the concept of Torah v’Avodah. For four years he studied at the High School of Torah and Crafts in Kfar Chabad, where he had a significant role in shaping his image, as was revealed later, when he was in the core and in the agriculture. Although he invested a lot of time in Torah and work, his place was also absent from the soccer field and the ping pong tables. In preparation for military life, he practiced long runs and lifting weights to stifle and vaccinate. He joined the Nahal Brigade at the end of July 1967. After completing his basic training, Yaaki moved to an intelligence group. In a short time he would like the place and he seemed determined to devote himself entirely to the work of the land. In March and with infinite devotion, he plowed and prepared the land and did not stop until they came to pick him up. More than once came to dinner, dirty and sweaty, because he stayed to work longer hours than necessary. Despite his hard and bitter work, he remained loyal to the commandment of Kono and was meticulous in his actions. Yaqi was involved in social life and his many friends remember his sense of humor, his good smile and clever clever eyes, reflected through his glasses. When he was called for operational employment, he went with his company to Neot HaKikar in the Arava. On September 5, 1969, Yaakov-Menahem and two of his friends fell in the line of duty while they were riding a mine. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul. His dedication to his comrades during his difficulties and his help in their daily life was appreciated by his friends and commanders alike. “His commander wrote in a letter of condolence to the family:” Your son was one of the pillars of the company in which he served. His comrades in the company built a hand in his memory and the memory of his friends who fell with him, at the beginning of the patrol route they passed on his last journey, and his parents donated a “box” for his reading of the Torah to the synagogue where he first came to the Torah. His biography and the lists of his parents, relatives and friends were gathered in a book that was published in his memory, “Ya’aki”.