Yom-Tov was born on 3.8.1920 in Sofia, Bulgaria, to Avraham and Carolina. He had two sisters. The father was an upholsterer and the family was a typical Jewish-Bulgarian family, active in Maccabee and Zionistic in outlook. Yom-Tov graduated from public elementary school and high school. He was also active in Beitar, which was organizing illegal aliyah to the Land of Israel. In 1938, he arrived on the Delta II, a Mapilim ship under the auspices of the Revisionist Movement.

He immediately joined the Beitar company in Rosh Pina and stayed there for two years. He joined the IZL, and in addition to his main occupation of agriculture, he helped smuggle illegal immigrants, by foot, over the Lebanese border. They stayed with Rosh Pina company for a time, then scattered to various places throughout the country. He also took part in actions against the institutions, such as Kofer HaYishuv.

When the split occurred, he followed Yair. He was known as Yoncho. He moved to the Sharon, where he put up posters and engaged in other underground activity. Due to informers (apparently), he was arrested in the settlement of Avihail, and for two years he was detained in various prisons and detention camps: Jaffa, Tulkarm, Mizra and Acre. In 1942, he was released, without any explanation for his arrest or his release.

In 1942, he married Yaffa Cohen, and they settled in the agricultural settlement of Tzur Moshe, populated by immigrants from Greece and Bulgaria. He never revealed to his neighbors his “terrorist” past, and he severed any Lehi connections. As a member of the agricultural settlement, he did not enlist in the IDF either. He joined Mapai and eventually the Labor Party.

In 1953, he started working at Tnuva in Tel Aviv; he continued to do so until he retired in 1986. He spent the next dozen years as a volunteer in the HaEshel branch of Clalit Health Fund, in Holon. He received an award for this.

Yom-Tov was fluent in many languages: Hebrew, English, Bulgarian, French, Spanish and Russian. He had three children.

His wife Yaffa passed away in 1998.