Shulamin (Stryjewski), Yaakov

Was born in the city of Cherkasy on the Dnieper River, Ukraine. In 1905 his family left Ukraine and moved to Samarkand, Kazakhstan. Where the father believed that the fact that he was a Jew would interfere with his business, and therefore he converted to the Pravoslavic religion. Jacob, who was then a student at a Russian high school, was hurt by this act of his father and in response began to learn the history of his people and to take an interest in the national idea and Zionism. In 1913 he left his parents’ house against their will and immigrated to Eretz Israel. In Israel he first lived in Rishon Letzion and was hired to work as a guard on behalf of Hashomer. He was well-behaved in this work and connected to the life of the land. Although his mother had become sick and his father had written to him to return to Samarkand to relieve her, he refused to do so and continued to work as a guard in Rishon Letzion. At the beginning of World War I, when the persecution of the Turkish bureaucracy began in Judea, he moved with the “guard” to the Galilee and began to work there. He was among the founders of the “Shepherd”. From the Galilee he moved to Be’er Sheva and worked in drilling wells. He joined the Turkish army and for about a year served as a military medic, but the army was fed up with him and he left Be’er Sheva and went to the Sea of ​​Galilee. When the days of persecution began, Hassan Bek found it difficult to find a job and thus suffered a difficult period of deprivation and hunger, but because of his pride he did not ask for help. After the British conquest he was to the gendarme in the Galilee and wandered as a rider until the days of the Tel Hai affair and the assaults on the Lower Galilee. He was later appointed by the Haganah to keep the lower Galilee. One day the Arabs attacked the colony of Nehemiah but withdrew from the defenders of the place. But after about a week it became known that the Arabs were attacking the Indian army stationed in the plant, on their way to attack the Jewish settlements. The local people decided to evacuate the women and children to the nearby settlement of Yavne’el, and the men would remain to protect the place. But when the farmers of Menahemiah saw that Degania B was burning, they decided in desperation to abandon the settlement. Schulmin and another guard who was with him tried to convince them not to abandon the place, but they refused to stay and Jacob and his friend remained alone. After that he decided to go to Yavne’el to protect the local people. Only the next day did he learn that he had not even arrived at Yavne’el. On April 24, 1920, shortly after his departure from Menahemia, he was attacked by Arabs from the neighboring village of Olam, shot to death and his clothes and rifle robbed, and members of Hashomer discovered the murderers later and avenged his death. After his time, his bones were transferred to the graves of the guards in Kfar Giladi, and his name was immortalized in the book “Hashomer” and in “Dreamers and Warriors.”