Rachel Goldberg-Polin: ‘An embarrassment to human race’ that we haven’t freed hostages
Hersh’s mom shares the ‘indescribable’ agony of son being held in Gaza; says she’s ‘deeply worried’ for ‘innocent civilians’ in Gaza: ‘I don’t think it’s a competition of pain’
Rachel Goldberg-Polin has a piece of tape attached to her shirt, bearing the hand-written number of days her son Hersh has been held hostage in Gaza. This was day 236.
It is “an emblem of my pain,” said Goldberg-Polin, 54, speaking to AFP at her office in Jerusalem, where an Israeli flag waves next to a banner featuring her 23-year-old son’s portrait and calling to “Bring Hersh home.”
Holding back tears, the US-born mother decried “an embarrassment to the human race that we haven’t been able to save” hostages held by terrorists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
She was referring to the 121 hostages who remain there since October 7, including several foreigners or dual citizens like the Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and 37 captives the Israel Defense Forces says are dead, as well as four others, including two dead soldiers, believed to be held in Gaza for years.
Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military. One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Ever since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, the soft-spoken mother, a former mental health professional who “used to work out six days a week,” said she hasn’t exercised, listened to music or eaten sugar.
“It’s a different life,” she told AFP.
For nearly eight months, she has suffered anguish, uncertainty and “indescribable” pain as the family awaits Hersh’s return.
A one-week truce in November saw 105 hostages freed. Hersh, like most other Israelis of fighting age, was not among them.
Relatives of hostages have piled pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging immediate action to secure their release.
But “wanting and doing are two very different things,” Goldberg-Polin said of the stated political will to bring them back.
‘Stay strong, survive’
A dual Israeli-US citizen, she moved to Jerusalem in 2008 and lives there with her husband Jon. They have three children, including Hersh.
Goldberg-Polin said she has turned to her Jewish faith through this period.
“When I pray every day… it’s a form of meditation and it’s a form of therapy.”
She said that when she prays for Hersh, she repeats the same mantra: “I love you, stay strong, survive.”
Her younger daughters, 18 and 20, have also been a source of comfort.
“They have to often be maternal to me, which I feel bad about because my job is to be maternal to them,” said the mother.
In late April, Hamas released a video showing her son — a sign he may still be alive and the first time the family had seen Hersh since October 6.
It was a Friday night, and after the Goldberg-Polins went to synagogue and had dinner with friends, Hersh left.
Recently back from a long trip across Europe, he decided to go camping, his mother said.
Without her knowing, Hersh went with a friend to a music festival near the Gaza border.
As an observant Jew, Rachel usually avoids using technology on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest.
But in the early morning on October 7, she looked at her phone. A message from her son read “I love you,” followed by another: “I’m sorry.”
The family initially thought Hersh had died, before learning of his abduction from the Nova rave site, where more than 360 people were killed when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists terrorists burst across the border from Gaza and rampaged southern Israel communities, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault. Of the hostages, some 40 were taken from the outdoor music festival.
Hersh’s left forearm was torn off during the attack, while his friend, Aner Shapira, was killed.
Terrorists were throwing grenades at them, and Shapira “kept picking them up and throwing them out” until one of them killed him, said Goldberg-Polin.
No ‘competition of pain’
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s relentless efforts to push for her son’s release have made her a well-known figure in Israel and beyond.
She has met with Pope Francis and last week with US President Joe Biden, who was “very emotional,” noted Goldberg-Polin.
In April, US magazine Time ranked her among the 100 most influential people in 2024.
“It was immediately clear that I do not belong on that list,” she said, but being included in it helped bring attention to “this global humanitarian crisis.”
"Hope is mandatory.”
With grit stemming from her Chicago roots, Rachel Goldberg-Polin overcomes unimaginable pain every day to advocate for the immediate release of her son, Hersh, and the other 132 hostages held in Gaza for 194 days.@TIME Magazine is right to recognize her as… pic.twitter.com/KneWyNyQbZ
— Israel in Chicago (@IsraelinChicago) April 17, 2024
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 35,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though only some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals. The toll, which cannot be verified, includes some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
A total of 294 soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip.
Goldberg-Polin said that “from the very beginning” she had also been “deeply worried” for “the innocent civilians” in Gaza.
“I don’t think it’s a competition of pain,” she said.
Now, people she meets and recognize her “start crying” as they already know her story, Goldberg-Polin said.
“I’m praying for the day when people see me and they smile.”
