Jakob was always the smartest kid in the room. He was clinically tested and scored an IQ of 150, but many professors estimated it was closer to 160. Be that as it may, he was also known as the Class Clown and charmed everyone not with his intelligence but with his keen wit and affable personality.
Like his older sister Rachel, he was born to Samuel and Talia Hirsch. He was two years younger than Rachel in age and three years older than her in general knowledge. At 24 months, he was speaking in complete sentences. At four, he was conducting intelligent conversations. His parents were amazed. His sister thought it annoying at first. Soon, Rachel began to appreciate what it meant to have a little savant in the family who was also the sweetest kid on the block. At age seven, he became her best friend and remained as such until the day he died.
Jakob didn’t have much athletic ability, but he tried every sport with gusto. He might not be able to keep up with the other kids in the neighborhood games of soccer or basketball, but what he lacked in physical prowess he made up for with a willingness to try anything. He often failed, but never despaired at his failure. His family and friends learned to respect him for his efforts.
One area in which he excelled, however, was at games of wit. He especially loved to play Kochav HaEtgarim, also known as The Genius Star. A popular logic and spatial reasoning puzzle where players compete against the clock to fill a star-shaped game board with different colored shapes after a set of dice dictate where blockers must be placed. It sounds complicated, and it is. But Jakob constantly amazed everyone with his ability to think three steps ahead of his competition.
He was an anomaly in high school. The smart kid who was also quite handsome. He never let it go to his head. He was humble to a fault. In fact, he enjoyed being something of a class clown, always eager to crack a joke or make a humorous observation. A trait his sister took umbrage at, as not only did he graduate “Metzayen Ha-Machzor,” or Valedictorian of his senior class, but he was also selected “Most likely to star in HaRavak,” the Israeli TV series similar to The Bachelor in the United States.
He was also a movie geek. He loved old American-made movies, particularly those with fast cars and motorcycles. His love affair began with the incomparable “Bullitt” with Steve McQueen, followed by “Mad Max” and “The Fast and the Furious.” His favorite, however, was Terminator II with Arnold Schwartznegger. The first time he saw Arnold climb onto his Harley-Davidson Fatboy and ride into cinematic history, he was hooked. Someday, he told himself, he would own a Harley. Someday he would come to America and tour the California coast in his leather jacket and blue jeans. Someday.
Upon entering the military, he was heavily recruited to join Unit 8200, the largest and most prominent elite intelligence unit, responsible for signals intelligence (SIGINT), cyber defense, and data encryption. His mother’s reputation with the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps helped pave the way for this recruitment. Jakob joined and immediately established himself as not only a brilliant encryption specialist but a capable defense specialist. He never viewed any of these positions as potential occupations, though. He was intent upon becoming an archeologist like his sister and his cousin Nava. He couldn’t wait for his term to expire so that he could enter school and get on with his education.
He attended the Hebrew University. Like Rachel and Nava, he excelled academically and began making a name for himself in archeology before he even became an archeologist. He actively pursued lab assistantships to master artifact analysis and earn Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and 3D photogrammetry certificates. He was determined to be one of Israel’s finest archeologist, and did whatever it took to help him achieve his dream.
The greatest challenge Jakob faced had nothing to do with the military, college, or work. It was romance—not because he lacked women to choose from; they practically fell at his feet, but because of whom he chose to love: Nava. He was not merely in love; he was smitten. From the age of 10, he looked upon her as a young goddess. She had no faults. She had no blemishes. In his mind’s eye, she was the perfect woman for him. She was the perfect woman for anyone. Of course, she was five years older, which presented a problem. Older girls don’t date younger guys, even if they are smart and good-looking. And so he held his tongue and kept his love a secret. Perhaps when they were both older, he could declare his love and marry her. The fact that she was his cousin didn’t matter. After all, she was actually his “second” cousin, which carried with it the same risk as any woman in the world regarding genetic issues for their children. He’d done the research. But how and when to tell her? That was the rub.
David Bruder hired Jakob without hesitation. He was well aware of the young man’s reputation as a budding expert in archeology and was anxious to bring him on board under the direction of both Nava and Rachel. They made a well-rounded team of professional scientists. He didn’t disappoint. On his second field trip, at a cave in Eureidis (northern Israel), he helped unearth tools, animal bones, and early evidence of controlled fire, indicating that pre-Neanderthal human-like creatures used it up to 40,000 years ago. In David’s eyes, however, this discovery paled in comparison to Jakob's unearthing of a 3,000-year-old pendant from the late Byzantine period, engraved with a Temple Menorah, highlighting an enduring Jewish connection to King David himself.
Yes, Jakob was well on his way to becoming the premier archeologist of his generation. He was part of a dynamic team and a valued employee of Bruder Antiquities. The sky was the limit.