Jacob may have conducted Jewish services for the other Jewish men in his regiment, as back home in Lithuania his uncle had run the local Cheder, and by the age of seven Jacob was reading the Torah at services.

Jacob was born and grew up in a small, agricultural village in Lithuania, a large proportion of which was Jewish. Two of his uncles moved to England and set up a business in Middlesbrough, and suggested that he come over to join them. Jacob's son Harold doesn't know much about his father's life in the North East, but he does know that he had a motorbike, and with his good knowledge of both Hebrew and Yiddish was a big part of the Middlesbrough Jewish Community.