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A Jewish war hero, and the last vestige of a dying Indian community | The Times of Israel
N EW DELHI (JTA) Lt. Gen. Jack
Jacob, a national hero in India for likely saving hundreds of
thousands of lives, is planning to
fade away.
Ive just had my 89th birthday, he
says, I think Ive earned the right to
rest.
So Jacob, Indias top-ranking Jew,
stayed home on his recent birthday,
preferring to be alone in his modest
New Delhi flat while enjoying his
birthday cake, a special delivery from
Nachums Calcuttas famous Jewish Bakery and now among the
last of the once many Jewish-owned
establishments in the city.
Sitting on his golden brocade sofas
he calls them his thrones
Jacobs answers to a retinue of
questions are instantaneous and
measured. He occasionally illustrates
his point with passages from English poetry from the first half of the last
century.
He has loved two women, he says,
but they did not wait for him. His
brothers are no longer alive; he has
no contact with extended family.
Calcuttas Jewish community has
mostly migrated to Israel.
My friends and peers are all gone,
Jacob says.
Jack Farj Rafael Jacob, wildly
accomplished and widely respected,
is best known for his decisive role in
the 1971 Bangladesh war. Indians
and historians generally agree that
his courage, strategic thinking and hutzpa changed the course of South
Asian history.
What had started as a freedom fight
by the Eastern wing of Pakistan (now
Bangladesh) against mainland
Pakistan to the west the two
geographically separated regions
straddle India turned into a full blown humanitarian crisis. Estimates
from historians and governments
range from 500,000 to 3 million
people being massacred in the
conflict along with countless
thousands of rapes and other atrocities. As a result, some 10 million
refugees streamed over the border
into India, which then declared war
on Pakistan.
Jacob, then chief of staff of the Indian
Eastern command, knew that a
protracted war, of which he was the
Indian commander, would claim
countless more lives. As the war
began, trudging through swamp terrain, his troops enacted a daring
plan to capture Dhaka, the capital of
East Pakistan.
Two weeks into the war, Pakistans
commander in East Pakistan, Gen.
A.A.K. Niazi, invited Jacob to lunch to
discuss a cease-fire. Jacob wrote up
an instrument of surrender
document for his counterpart and flew with it across enemy lines,
unarmed and accompanied only by
one staff officer.
Niazi was given a stark choice:
Surrender unconditionally and
publicly, and receive the protection
of the Indian Army for all minorities
and retreating troops, or face an
Indian military onslaught. Jacob gave Niazi 30 minutes to decide.
Jacob, as he retells it, went out to the
veranda, pacing for the full half hour.
Exhibiting his legendary self-control,
the general appeared relatively calm
while puffing his pipe and asking the
Pakistani sentry about his wife and children. But knowing that he had
been bluffing, I appealed to God for
help and said the Shema Yisrael, he
told JTA.
Niazi agreed to the terms. The next
day, 93,000 Pakistani soldiers
surrendered. Jacob had but 3,000
Indian troops, 30 miles away, behind
him.
Multitudes were likely saved by this
surrender, still studied by military
students. Recognizing his role, last
month the Islamic Republic of
Bangladesh awarded Jacob a
certificate of appreciation for his unique role in the formation of the
nation.
Jacob was born into the once vibrant
Baghdadi Jewish community of
Calcutta in 1923. His was a deeply
religious family, and his parents hired
Hebrew teachers for him and his
brothers. But Jacob says he just wasnt interested, something I now
deeply regret.
That was before poetry and war
pulled him away. It was before he
saved forests and wildlife from
destruction and his (secret) efforts to
cultivate the now 20-year-old Israel-
India relationship. It was before he became a national hero.
When his father fell ill, the children
were sent to a boarding school high
in the Darjeeling hills. Jacob excelled
in his studies and fell in love with the
virgin forests, developing his lifelong
passion for the outdoors. As a teenager he loved poetry and was
especially influenced by the work of
wartime poets. World War II had
started and the Jacobs adopted a
family of Jewish refugees from
Hitlers Europe.
I was appalled by their stories, by
the atrocities, he says, I joined the
British Army to fight the Nazis.
Jacobs father initially disapproved,
but eventually gave his blessing out
of respect for his sons motives.
When India gained independence in
1948, Jacob continued to serve in
the Indian Army, swiftly rising in the
ranks. The only place I encountered anti-
Semitism was from the British in their
army, he says. Among Indians it
does not exist.
After retirement in July 1978, he was
appointed as the governor usually
a ceremonial position of the small
southwestern state of Goa. In
another display of Jacobian hutzpa,
he imposed the rarely used Governors rule to combat an acute
parliamentary crisis reminiscent of a
game of musical chairs.
He battled corruption, paid back
high-interest loans and saved large
tracks of forest from the mining
industry by designating those lands
as wildlife reserves. Jacob was next
appointed governor of Punjab. When he left the post, graffiti went up on
the walls: Without Jacob, who will
feed the poor?
Jacob still will not share details of his
role in forging the diplomatic bond
with Israel. However, when Israels
ambassador to India arrived in Delhi
this year, he brought a personal
letter for Jacob from Israeli President Shimon Peres.
I need not reiterate the importance
that Israel attaches to its relations
with India, and want to express our
appreciation for your support, Peres
wrote. We are proud that as an
Indian Jew, you have played such an important role in the defense and
development of your country, and
trust that your friendship will serve to
promote deeper and broader ties
and cooperation between Israel and
India.
Peres also congratulated Jacob on
his new best-selling autobiography,
An Odyssey in War and Peace.
Jacob has been to Israel several
times, even before the forging of
diplomatic relations. He was on stage
as an honored guest during the
1995 opening ceremony for the
Jerusalem 3000 celebrations. Over the years, Jacob had developed close
friendships with Israelis such as
Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. He had a
particular fondness for Motta Gur, the
Israeli paratrooper commander
whose forces captured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967.
Your military achievements were of
much interest in my country, Gur
once wrote to Jacob in a letter
delivered via a mutual friend in the
days before Israel-India relations.
Your performance is, without a doubt, one of the best in modern
warfare.
Today, Jacobs uniform hangs in the
Israeli military museum Latrun. He
even donated his mothers silver
wedding girdle and jewelry to the
Indian Jewish museum in Lod, Israel. Was he ever tempted to move to the
Jewish state and offer his military
expertise?
Israel has outstanding military
leaders of their own, they do not
need me, he says. Besides, India
has always been very good to us. I
am very proud to be a Jew, but am
Indian through and through. I was born in India and served here my
whole life; this is where I want die.
N EW DELHI (JTA) Lt. Gen. Jack
Jacob, a national hero in India for likely saving hundreds of
thousands of lives, is planning to
fade away.
Ive just had my 89th birthday, he
says, I think Ive earned the right to
rest.
So Jacob, Indias top-ranking Jew,
stayed home on his recent birthday,
preferring to be alone in his modest
New Delhi flat while enjoying his
birthday cake, a special delivery from
Nachums Calcuttas famous Jewish Bakery and now among the
last of the once many Jewish-owned
establishments in the city.
Sitting on his golden brocade sofas
he calls them his thrones
Jacobs answers to a retinue of
questions are instantaneous and
measured. He occasionally illustrates
his point with passages from English poetry from the first half of the last
century.
He has loved two women, he says,
but they did not wait for him. His
brothers are no longer alive; he has
no contact with extended family.
Calcuttas Jewish community has
mostly migrated to Israel.
My friends and peers are all gone,
Jacob says.
Jack Farj Rafael Jacob, wildly
accomplished and widely respected,
is best known for his decisive role in
the 1971 Bangladesh war. Indians
and historians generally agree that
his courage, strategic thinking and hutzpa changed the course of South
Asian history.
What had started as a freedom fight
by the Eastern wing of Pakistan (now
Bangladesh) against mainland
Pakistan to the west the two
geographically separated regions
straddle India turned into a full blown humanitarian crisis. Estimates
from historians and governments
range from 500,000 to 3 million
people being massacred in the
conflict along with countless
thousands of rapes and other atrocities. As a result, some 10 million
refugees streamed over the border
into India, which then declared war
on Pakistan.
Jacob, then chief of staff of the Indian
Eastern command, knew that a
protracted war, of which he was the
Indian commander, would claim
countless more lives. As the war
began, trudging through swamp terrain, his troops enacted a daring
plan to capture Dhaka, the capital of
East Pakistan.
Two weeks into the war, Pakistans
commander in East Pakistan, Gen.
A.A.K. Niazi, invited Jacob to lunch to
discuss a cease-fire. Jacob wrote up
an instrument of surrender
document for his counterpart and flew with it across enemy lines,
unarmed and accompanied only by
one staff officer.
Niazi was given a stark choice:
Surrender unconditionally and
publicly, and receive the protection
of the Indian Army for all minorities
and retreating troops, or face an
Indian military onslaught. Jacob gave Niazi 30 minutes to decide.
Jacob, as he retells it, went out to the
veranda, pacing for the full half hour.
Exhibiting his legendary self-control,
the general appeared relatively calm
while puffing his pipe and asking the
Pakistani sentry about his wife and children. But knowing that he had
been bluffing, I appealed to God for
help and said the Shema Yisrael, he
told JTA.
Niazi agreed to the terms. The next
day, 93,000 Pakistani soldiers
surrendered. Jacob had but 3,000
Indian troops, 30 miles away, behind
him.
Multitudes were likely saved by this
surrender, still studied by military
students. Recognizing his role, last
month the Islamic Republic of
Bangladesh awarded Jacob a
certificate of appreciation for his unique role in the formation of the
nation.
Jacob was born into the once vibrant
Baghdadi Jewish community of
Calcutta in 1923. His was a deeply
religious family, and his parents hired
Hebrew teachers for him and his
brothers. But Jacob says he just wasnt interested, something I now
deeply regret.
That was before poetry and war
pulled him away. It was before he
saved forests and wildlife from
destruction and his (secret) efforts to
cultivate the now 20-year-old Israel-
India relationship. It was before he became a national hero.
When his father fell ill, the children
were sent to a boarding school high
in the Darjeeling hills. Jacob excelled
in his studies and fell in love with the
virgin forests, developing his lifelong
passion for the outdoors. As a teenager he loved poetry and was
especially influenced by the work of
wartime poets. World War II had
started and the Jacobs adopted a
family of Jewish refugees from
Hitlers Europe.
I was appalled by their stories, by
the atrocities, he says, I joined the
British Army to fight the Nazis.
Jacobs father initially disapproved,
but eventually gave his blessing out
of respect for his sons motives.
When India gained independence in
1948, Jacob continued to serve in
the Indian Army, swiftly rising in the
ranks. The only place I encountered anti-
Semitism was from the British in their
army, he says. Among Indians it
does not exist.
After retirement in July 1978, he was
appointed as the governor usually
a ceremonial position of the small
southwestern state of Goa. In
another display of Jacobian hutzpa,
he imposed the rarely used Governors rule to combat an acute
parliamentary crisis reminiscent of a
game of musical chairs.
He battled corruption, paid back
high-interest loans and saved large
tracks of forest from the mining
industry by designating those lands
as wildlife reserves. Jacob was next
appointed governor of Punjab. When he left the post, graffiti went up on
the walls: Without Jacob, who will
feed the poor?
Jacob still will not share details of his
role in forging the diplomatic bond
with Israel. However, when Israels
ambassador to India arrived in Delhi
this year, he brought a personal
letter for Jacob from Israeli President Shimon Peres.
I need not reiterate the importance
that Israel attaches to its relations
with India, and want to express our
appreciation for your support, Peres
wrote. We are proud that as an
Indian Jew, you have played such an important role in the defense and
development of your country, and
trust that your friendship will serve to
promote deeper and broader ties
and cooperation between Israel and
India.
Peres also congratulated Jacob on
his new best-selling autobiography,
An Odyssey in War and Peace.
Jacob has been to Israel several
times, even before the forging of
diplomatic relations. He was on stage
as an honored guest during the
1995 opening ceremony for the
Jerusalem 3000 celebrations. Over the years, Jacob had developed close
friendships with Israelis such as
Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. He had a
particular fondness for Motta Gur, the
Israeli paratrooper commander
whose forces captured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967.
Your military achievements were of
much interest in my country, Gur
once wrote to Jacob in a letter
delivered via a mutual friend in the
days before Israel-India relations.
Your performance is, without a doubt, one of the best in modern
warfare.
Today, Jacobs uniform hangs in the
Israeli military museum Latrun. He
even donated his mothers silver
wedding girdle and jewelry to the
Indian Jewish museum in Lod, Israel. Was he ever tempted to move to the
Jewish state and offer his military
expertise?
Israel has outstanding military
leaders of their own, they do not
need me, he says. Besides, India
has always been very good to us. I
am very proud to be a Jew, but am
Indian through and through. I was born in India and served here my
whole life; this is where I want die.
