Yaacov was born April 17,1928 in Frauenkirchen Austria, to Dvora and Avigdor Goldman. His elementary school studies began in Austria. In 1939 his family immigrated to Israel and Yaacov was sent to study in Yeshivas. In parallel, he studied privately and passed his matriculation exams. He also studied accounting.
Yaacov held nationalistic views and in 1943, aged 15, he joined Lehi. Like all youngsters, he attended ideological lectures, pasted up info-bulletins, and underwent weapons-training courses, until being integrated in Lehi’s fighting division, as a regular fighter. From here he went out for attack operations on British government targets. Among the activities in which he participated was the placing of a road mine near the entrance to Sarona, where the British Command HQ was located, and detonating it against a military vehicle. On February 25,1946 as part of the Hebrew Revolt Movement, he participated in the attack on the RAF Airport at Kfar-Sirkin, resulting in which nine Spitfire combat planes destroyed. Yaacov also participated in detonating the Tel-Aviv district CID HQ, September 9,1946, and in detonating the CID HQ Haifa on January 12,1947. In February 1947, he and several comrades were arrested in Haifa due to an informer. On May 12,1947 he was sent to exile by the British to the Gilgil Kenya prison camp in the last convoy of underground prisoners. He returned from Kenya with the last of the exiles, on July 12,1948, after establishment of the State of Israel, and 14 months in exile. Immediately after return, he joined the IDF and served in the 89th Battalion, 8th Brigade, in the company commanded by Yaacov Granek (Blond Dov), and participated in the battalion’s battles during the War of Independence. After discharge from the IDF at war’s end, he worked as the Head Accountant of “Ma’atz” (Department of Public Works) in Beer-Sheba. Yaacov married Sarah Yakobovich in 1950. They had four children: Naftali, Chaya, David and Shoshana, and have twenty grandchildren.
The family eventually moved to Tel-Aviv and he was appointed Comptroller of the “Maatz” Bureau, where he worked until retiring.