Shabtai, Yaakov (“Yiku”)

Son of Avraham and Miriam. He was born on 10/1/1940 in Izmir, Turkey, where he graduated from the Alliance Primary School, studied for two more years in high school and won high grades, and since his early childhood he was cheerful, honest and open-hearted. In 1956 he decided to immigrate to Israel, preferring to serve in the IDF instead of serving in the Turkish army. Jacob separated from his family and immigrated to Israel alone as a tourist. He found his place in Kibbutz Givat Brenner and joined Gadna-Yam, where he was a member of the Israel Defense Forces, and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in mid-March 1958 and volunteered to serve in the navy. He did his compulsory service as a gunner on the Eilat destroyer. After being released, he worked for one year on various merchant ships of the Zim Company. Before he married a wife, he left the sea under his influence, studied for a year in electrical and electronics, and excelled in his studies. He was very talented and diligent in his studies as a yeshiva student. After completing the course, nine of his classmates decided to establish a cooperative for electrical works, and Yaakov was elected director of the cooperative. He continued to study at the British Institute in the evenings to complete his matriculation exams. In the meantime, Yaakov was offered an attractive proposal to serve as a senior foreman at the Nuclear Research Center in the Negev, and therefore moved to Dimona. In the work, he became fond of his friends, who nicknamed him “Yiku”. He was a dedicated husband and loved his family very much. His honesty, his kindness and his sense of humor acquired every person’s Lev everywhere and indeed he had many friends and lovers. In 1965 his family finally arrived from Turkey and settled in Yahud. Jacob was the happiest man. At the end of October was called for a period of reserve duty. On 9/11/1969, he fell in the line of duty and was put to rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. He left a wife, a little girl and a child. His commanding officer wrote in a letter of condolence to his family: “Jacob was dear to us all as a man and a friend, and we loved him, his dedication to his friends and his loyalty to the state. the good”. In the booklet “In Memory of Them,” published by the Dimona municipality, his memory was raised with the rest of Dimona who fell in Israel’s wars; In addition, lists of his memoirs were published in the booklet “Keh Yehudah Yad LaBonimah”.