Shefiz, Yaakov (Yankele)
Son of Rachel and Aryeh, was born in 1922 in the town of Tyszowice, near Zamosc, Poland. Studied in rooms and in a Polish school and later in a yeshiva in Ludmir. And that’s where his connection with the religion he brought with him from his parents’ Hasidic house ended. When he was 14, he joined the Hechalutz Hatzair-Dror movement and a year later fled the house and arrived at the pioneering training commune in Grochow. His father wanted to bring him home with the help of the police, but he surrendered and resigned after the mother pleaded not to cause disgrace to the large and respectable family by bringing the son home with the police. In a work accident two of his fingers were cut off and then he left the kibbutz for Warsaw, worked as a furun and continued his activities in the movement. At the beginning of the Second World War he fled to the Soviet occupation zone and was sent to work on the northern steppes. After the Stalin-Sikorski agreement, he was liberated and moved to Central Asia (Turkistan and its surroundings). He suffered greatly from the Polish representatives’ alienation from the remnants of the Jews of their country and from all the hardships of war and distress, until by chance he managed to be hired by the political police in a German POW camp and gained relative freedom of movement. Twice he tried to cross the Iranian border in order to immigrate to Israel, but because of various coincidences he was forced to return to his place of service. After the war, he joined a convoy of “repatriated” Jewish refugees in Tashkent and arrived with them in Poland. Where he rejoined the Dror movement and for two years worked for the “Irgun Ha – Bricha” and helped transport Jewish refugees across many European borders. In these activities he took advantage of his ability to get acquainted with difficult situations and the other qualities he had acquired in his years of wandering in Soviet Asia. Among other things, he managed to arrange the immigration of his brother, who parted from him in Russia and came to Germany. Yaakov himself immigrated to Israel in 1946 aboard the Biriya. In winter he worked in furriers and in summer photography. Yaakov volunteered for the army on March 9, 1948 despite his disability. His notes about life in the army are full of healthy humor. He participated in the conquest of Neve Ya’ar (Waldeheim) and Bethlehem Zevulun, the German colonies in the Lower Galilee. After completing an artillery training course, he left with the first IDF Artillery Corps to protect the Jordan Valley against the Syrian invasion, and on 18.5.1948 he was wounded in the leg and stomach next to Tzemach, who ran to the Jordan River and continued swimming (he was a clear swimmer from his childhood) , Was brought to the hospital in Tiberias and died of his wounds on 13 May 1948. He was buried in Tiberias on May 31, 1950, and was transferred to the Nahalat Yitzhak Military Cemetery.
