Shachar (Morgenstern), Yaakov

Son of Mordechai. He was born in 1901 in Shedlitz, Poland. He studied in a cheder in his home town and when he grew up he was active in the Poalei Zion movement. In 1920, at the age of 19, he immigrated to Eretz Israel and continued his activities in the Workers’ Union of Palestine in the Histadrut and the Haganah. At the age of 25, he was one of the founders of the Poalei HaRakevet neighborhood in the Borochov neighborhood and one of its first settlers. Yaakov was hired to work on the Palestine Railways and over the course of time ascended the ranks and became the supervisor of dozens of workers, mostly Arabs. During the bloody riots of 1936-1939, on the 18 Sivan, 17th of June 1938, Ya’akov left at the head of thirty workers to repair the railway bridge near Qalqiliya. When he moved about half a kilometer from the place of work, an Arab armed with a rifle attacked him and shot him. Yaakov, despite his wounds, fought the murderer, but his strength was exhausted and the assassin fled. He died at Hadassah Hospital to where he was rushed. Yaakov was brought to eternal rest in the old cemetery in Tel Aviv. Survived by a wife and daughter.