‘I love you, stay strong, survive. I love you, stay strong, survive.”
Those are the words that Rachel Goldberg repeats every day, desperately hoping that her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, manifests those words in Gaza.
Journalists and media professionals walk into the Goldberg-Polin family apartment in a quiet Jerusalem neighborhood. Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg’s son Hersh is one of more than 130 hostages who remain in Gaza under Hamas captivity.
Outside the building, on a balcony that undoubtedly belongs to this family, a large banner is hung with the number of days (since October 7) from when Hamas kidnapped Hersh. Goldberg wears the same number on her sweater, changing it every morning that Hersh isn’t home.
Most families wear pins or pictures of their loved ones who remain hostages, but to Rachel, the photos of her son are frozen in time and don’t accurately represent the dire need for Hersh to come home. “The number changing every day makes me uncomfortable, makes me feel sick. I think it makes other people feel uncomfortable, and that’s a good thing. We should all feel uncomfortable that over 135 innocent people are being held captive in horrible conditions.”
As we walked up to the family’s apartment, a sign in front of the door read, “Please, no visitors today. We are exhausted.” While we knew this family was probably going through the worst devastation possible, seeing that sign made it more real. Nothing can communicate the emotional toll and fatigue the Goldberg-Polin family is going through.
Interviewing Hersh's parents
We began our interview by asking Jon and Rachel about Hersh. He was born in California, but when he was eight, his parents moved him and his two sisters to Jerusalem. The Goldberg-Polin family seems like a typical, happy, tight-knit family. Still, despite what they are going through, they seem particularly welcoming and kind.
On the coffee table are several photos of Hersh from different trips that he has taken, and in those photos, one can get a sense of the type of person he is. His smile is huge, and he is wearing a backpack in most images, as his passion is to travel the world.
Rachel and Jon describe Hersh as “curious about the world, passionate about geography, a huge soccer and music fan.” Hersh’s passion for travel brought him to meet people from all over the world from diverse religions and backgrounds, many of whom have reached out to the family, saying they are praying for his return.
Hersh turned 23 on October 3 and decided to celebrate his birthday with his best friend, Aner Shapira, at the Supernova music festival on October 7. The night before, Hersh attended a Shabbat dinner with his family in Jerusalem and kissed his parents goodbye before heading to the festival.
The following morning, the family woke up to rocket sirens at 8:00 a.m., not yet knowing what was happening to Hersh and his friends at the music festival. Soon after, Rachel, who usually doesn’t use her phone on Shabbat, turned it on to check whether Hersh was okay. Two WhatsApp messages popped up from Hersh that he had sent to his parents 10 minutes earlier.
At 8:11, Hersh sent: “I love you. I’m sorry.”
At 8:23, Rachel responded, “Are you okay?”
At 8:29, Rachel wrote, “Please let me know you are okay.”
At 8:36, Rachel wrote: “I’m leaving my phone on. Let us know you are okay.”
RACHEL AND Jon later found out that Hersh and his friend had tried to escape from the massacre that was taking place at the camping grounds of the music festival. Hersh ended up in a bomb shelter with 27 other people. Hamas had approached the bomb shelter and threw in hand grenades, most of which Aner threw out to prevent them from detonating inside the shelter.
Three grenades, however, did detonate inside a tiny room, killing a large number of people. Hamas continued to fire an RPG and sprayed the room with machine gunfire, murdering most of the people inside the shelter.
Many survivors in that shelter pretended to be dead, and they were the ones who told Jon and Rachel that Hamas walked into the shelter and, at gunpoint, told three young men who were wounded but still alive: “Stand up, come with us.”
Hersh stood up, and his left arm had been blown off elbow. He and two other young men got into a Hamas pickup truck that headed to Gaza. His last phone cell signal was at 10:25 that morning.
Anderson Cooper conducted an interview with Rachel and Jon on CNN. The journalist realized that, while filming for a CNN documentary in the South, he received from another soldier footage of Hersh and the two other men getting onto the truck. The footage is hard to watch; the kidnapped men are either forcing themselves, with great difficulty, to make it onto the pickup or being dragged by their abductors.
I asked Rachel and Jon how ordinary people can help them during these terrible moments. They replied that they want the world to know about Hersh and his story because they believe that awareness could lead to saving his life.
The family launched the #BringHershHome campaign and is involved in the broader Bring Them Home Now campaign for all the hostages. They want us to keep the story alive.
They want global politicians to understand that the hostages in Hamas captivity are not just Israel’s problem but also the world’s problem, as they include victims representing 30 nationalities and five religions. Hamas holding over 130 people hostage is a global humanitarian crisis.
We cannot become complacent. We must work tirelessly to demand their release. My commitment to the Goldberg-Polin family and to all the families who still have loved ones who are hostages in Gaza is that we will not stop until they are back home.
The writer is a social media activist with more than 10 years of experience working for Israeli and Jewish causes and cause-based NGOs. She is co-founder and COO of Social Lite Creative, a digital marketing firm specializing in geopolitics.