Son of Edna and Nissim. He was born on September 30, 1963, in Bnei Brak. Brother to Mordechai-Yishai, Sarah-Nina, Yitzhak-Chai, Avshalom and Smadar. Kobi was from a family rooted in Spain. His ancestors came to Israel from Syria in 1944. He himself and his brothers grew up in Bnei Brak and even after they had grown up and established their own families, they remained in a warm and very close relationship with each other and with their parents. From the first to the fourth grade Kobi studied and was educated in the “Rabbi Akiva” Talmud Torah school in Bnei Brak, and then continued at the Segula school in his city. During his spare time he participated in activities of the Bnei Akiva and Ezra youth movements. As a child, Kobi was the leader of the children in the neighborhood, so much so that one of the mothers asked him to stop controlling her son. From a very early age, he displayed extraordinary courage and honesty, combined with a special cleverness and sense of humor. “He was brilliant,” said his sister Nina, “when we were kids we used to play a game like this: At first we all read the same book, and then one read a sentence and the others had to remember which page this sentence was, exactly ten pages to win. “As an adult at the bank, he could immediately notice a line that was not concocted in a document that had been placed before him.” “Kobi was born a year later and was my best friend,” said Nina. “When I grew up, I found out that he was the best friend of many more people, and if you wanted to be a friend of Kobi, you had to try to be a human being … Three things guided his life and all are connected with love from the heart: love of the people of Israel, I read a sentence and he had to open the book in a sentence, he was allowed to deviate five pages left and right, he always succeeded, and that annoyed me. He would appease me with a good joke he always knew to pull out, we laughed a lot together, the jokes he scattered all over the place brought life to the bull And the right divisions and made us feel the real things in life. ” From the eighth grade to the end of high school, Kobi studied at the Sha’alvim yeshiva. During his studies there he won prizes for excellence in various subjects. He then went on to the Nir Yeshiva in Kiryat Arba. On April 21, 1983, he enlisted in compulsory military service, served in infantry and during the First Lebanon War was a combatant and a squad commander. In his regular service in Lebanon he often faced life-threatening situations and was saved, displaying courage and resourcefulness. In one case he crawled through a minefield under fire to rescue his wounded commander. After he succeeded in his mission, he was invited to receive a commendation for his work. But Kobi, in his special modesty, gave up the special letter and did not show up for the event. After his release, Kobi studied jewelry and began to work as an artist. During his studies he married Estella Esther. After their marriage, the couple moved to the settlement of Avnei Hefetz, a religious community established in Samaria. Kobi began studying economics at Bar-Ilan University. On the day he learned and in the evenings he worked in the production of command and control panels. In the third year of his studies, Bank Mizrahi offered him a job offer. They looked for talented students to work at the bank. Kobi and his wife had six children. For fourteen years, Kobi lived in Avnei Hefetz and was a member of the community’s emergency squad (a group of volunteers). His friends told him that he was a good friend, loved and accepted in society and loved the Land of Israel. They also said that he was brave and not afraid of talking. Once his car was stolen, and Kobi entered Tulkarm alone, found his car, started it, and returned home. Once, one of the residents of the Yishuv found himself in a difficult financial situation. When he recovered from the crisis, the same resident returned to Rav BatVida to return the money to him calm. Only then did the rabbi tell him: “It was Yaakov Zaga who helped.” Kobi liked to help, but by way of Secret Charity. Modesty and simplicity were inherent in nature and principles, and accompanied all his actions. Because he hid his good deeds, it was only after his death that he realized who this humble man really was. Now it turned out that many people saw him as a paternal and supportive figure. But a whole tractate of good deeds he had done in secret remained and would remain forever unknown. As an economist, Kobi has advanced in his positions and became a national accounts auditor at Mizrahi Bank branches. He moved from branch to branch and checked the books for administrative review. All the branches knew him well, and knew that he was a professional. He also built dedicated software for the audit work, which is used even after his death. There was no stone that did not turn, but alongside ambition and diligence, Kobi had modesty and humility. Some of the branch managers saw him as an address for any professional question and deliberation, and Kobi would respond as much as he could. His co-workers said that he served as a “wall” for them, an attentive ear and a consultant for everything, because of his knowledge of many areas, his wisdom and his pleasant manner. He turned the profession of criticism into a compass of honesty and professionalism, counseling and assistance. Over the course of 12 years, Kobi worked as a visitor at Mizrahi Bank and Harash branches in Israel, so he managed to make friends with employees at various branches and to buy friends and friends. His signature is evident in almost all branches of the Bank from the north to south of the country. “He was ambitious, very motivated and willing to work in any field,” said Judith Tauber, his co-worker. “Every field was intriguing and interested, and he always went into detail, he was not deterred by physical discomfort, went to distant branches, conducted Sisyphean searches for archival documents, and never heard from him.” Was always backed up to the last detail, and claimed that it was impossible to do otherwise: He always claimed that the criticism dealt with “matters of life,” as he put it, and was aware of the tremendous impact that his criticism could have on the future of other bank employees. Indeed, in his work he sometimes discovered unusual acts by branch managers and other workers. The creative side of Kobi’s life was very varied: he could play saxophone and flute – a musical instrument he loved most; He liked to paint – in one of his pictures hangs in his living room. Kobi himself built some of the furniture in his home, and was a master chef in his kitchen and enjoyed cooking. Kobi loved to learn new things, such as languages, literature, agriculture and construction methods. He also wrote a book of Esther kosher in writers’ writing and is used in a synagogue in California. Another hobby he cultivated was growing grapes for wine. Kobi and his brother-in-law planned to produce wine from a vineyard planted in Beit El. His sister Nina said: “He was so waiting to see a bottle of wine on the shelves abroad with a picture of a house to him, and he thought it would be really Kiddush Hashem.” Kobi was often saved from the hands of murderers. In one of the incidents, while driving in the village of Funduk in Samaria, a bullet was fired at him, penetrating his car, entering the window next to him, passing millimeters from his face, and coming out the window on the other side. The car was filled with broken glass, but Kobi survived. On Shabbat Hagadol (pre-Passover), a terrorist infiltrated the settlement of Avnei Hefetz, and at about 1 AM the children heard loud knocking on the window shutters of their room in an attempt to break through, and Kobi jumped out of his bed and left immediately to protect his six children and his wife. The 14-year-old daughter, Hani, was wounded by a burst of gunfire when she held her three-and-a-half-year-old sister in the parents’ room.Yea. She said: “… The whole house was locked, and the terrorist could not lift the window of the nursery, he tried to break it with the rifle butt and then we woke Dad, he immediately ran out … I have no idea how I managed to crawl with anyone The pain of the injury, but I just did it to save the life of the rebirth.After a short time, when the shooting stopped, my mother also came to the shelter with my other brothers. Until the shooting did not stop, it was impossible to go through the house. “Kobi responded like a soldier and went out to defend his house: he took his pistol, left the front door and surrounded the house. Sergeant Major Yaakov Avi (Kobi) Zaga fell in a battle in Avnei Hefetz in the framework of an emergency squad on April 4, 2004. He was forty years old when he fell. In the “Segula” cemetery in Petach Tikvah in a full military ceremony, followed by a woman – Estella Esther, six children: Hana-Chaya, Sarah Adina, Rachel-Bruria, Ruth, Nissim-Gedaliah The two brothers and two sisters were engraved on the tombstone, and the words “Rise in the degrees of holiness on the eve of the great Sabbath and the Lord’s offering to the Lord of Judah and Jerusalem.” The second half of the inscription is quoted in the book of Malachi. Saved his family and all the residents of the settlement and paid for it in his life, “said the village spokeswoman, Hila Winograd.” He was a believer, my roots, and his family lives in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. An optimistic and happy person, a charming person, a dear man. It’s hard for me to talk about it in terms like that. We are in pain for his loss. “After Koby’s death, his father turned to the manager of the checking system at the bank where his son worked, and said that the family had decided to write a Torah scroll in his memory and was preparing to raise the necessary money. “The donations began flowing into the account we opened,” Yehudit Tauber said. We were surprised by the generosity and willingness. “In addition to Bank employees, the Bank’s management also contributed, the Ministry of Defense was involved in the project and many members of the family from Israel and abroad. Eight years after Kobi was killed and the day after the pilgrimage to his grave, the family celebrated his son’s bar mitzvah. Nissim read the Torah scroll written in memory of his father, a book that is invested in accordance with Kobi’s legacy. Another activity to commemorate him is the establishment of a design library in his memory in the conference room on the audit committee floor, which will reflect the great human and professional baggage that Kobi carried and implemented in his work. In the settlement of Avni Hefetz, a neighborhood called Ma’ale Ya’akov was named after Yaakov.
