Shekelet, Yaakov
Son of Frida and Moshe, was born in December 1926 in the Jewish quarter of Aleppo in northern Syria. He studied at the Talmud Torah and at the “Kol Israel Haverim” school. In 1942 he boarded the land by bypassing the guards of the northern border. Worked as a construction worker and lived in Haifa in his parents’ home. When he joined the Haganah in 1945, he fulfilled his duty in training and service, and often abandoned his work and his family for long periods of time. When the United Nations General Assembly decided on 29 November 1947 to partition the land and the Jewish residents filled the streets with joy and dancing, Yaakov was already in a defensive position and three weeks later he was drafted into the Carmeli Brigade and served in defense and punitive operations in Haifa and the surrounding area, Although he lived in a dangerous Arab environment, he appeared at any time and place, according to the order: Jacob was added to a patrol vehicle and served in securing the road to Zichron Yaakov and in punitive actions against the villages of the rioters Jaba and Ein Ghazal, Aviv to Haifa, after taking part in basic training with his company, participated in the liberation of Haifa and the Western Galilee, and later the conquest of Acre, where he served in the Department ‘Vice squad commander and gunner. According to the command, he and his class broke into the city from the sea side. The burglars were attacked by two snipers among the houses. The class found shelter behind a fence and Jacob passed the machine gun. When he passed the fence, he was hit by a bullet in his chest and fell, on the day of 8 May 1948, and was brought to rest in the military cemetery in Haifa.
