Yaakov was born on 8 December 1922 in Fez, Morocco to David and Simcha and the family immigrated to Israel in 1923. His father died when he was seven and his mother could not afford to feed the family so Yaakov was sent to the Diskin orphanage in Jerusalem where he excelled at his education, played the harmonica and learnt to create ornaments out of wood and iron.

At the outbreak of war, he enlisted into the Navy and was assigned to the ship HMS Woolwich as a stoker. In mid-June 1942, the ship was ordered to leave Alexandria as the port facilities were going to be destroyed there to prevent their capture by the advancing Panzer Army. Woolwich, HMS Resource and six destroyers were transferred south of the Suez Canal until the victory at the second Battle of El Alamein in October allowed them to return to Alexandria. She remained there until late 1943 when she was assigned to the Eastern Fleet and based at Trincomalee for the rest of the war.

Yaakov died in the 64th General Hospital, Alexandria from concussion with cerebral haemorrhage as the result of an accident.