Thousands of mourners gathered in Jerusalem on Monday to honor Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage killed by Hamas militants. Hersh, who moved to Israel from California at the age of seven, was abducted during the Oct. 7 attack while attending a music festival. His body, along with those of five other hostages, was discovered by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza. The discovery of their bodies sparked widespread grief and anger, leading to mass protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Hersh’s parents, Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, have been vocal advocates for the hostages’ plight, tirelessly working to raise awareness and meet with global leaders.
At the funeral, Hersh’s mother spoke of her son’s commitment to justice and peace, while his father lamented the failure to protect him. The Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, expressed his sorrow and acknowledged the nation’s inability to save Hersh. The somber event highlighted the ongoing impact of the conflict and the deep loss felt by the community.
Father, Jon Polin’s Speech:
“‘Appoint for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a companion and judge all people with the benefit of the doubt.’” Some ask: What is it that connects these two distinct parts of this verse? First, appoint for yourself a teacher, a companion. And second, judging all people with the benefit of the doubt. This verse is Hersh. A teacher and acquire for yourself a companion. Hersh always used his intellect to strengthen his companionship.
From the time Hersh was a toddler, he had a wisdom that always expanded my own thinking. He was my Rav, my teacher, my companion. I knew that as we walked hand in hand to get my Sunday morning coffee in Berkeley, I’d better be ready for some challenging questions from a 3-and-a-half year old Hersh.
By 6, he was into challenging his memorization, topic by topic. On a family Passover trip to Florida, a man came into the lunch room one day and exclaimed: “There’s a little kid out there giving answers about US Presidential trivia, he knows every answer, and now he’s charging people a dollar per question.”
Hersh was always self-assured. When we told 7-year-old Hersh we were moving to Israel, making Aliyah, we told him that his name Hersh could be challenging to Israelis. Maybe you want to become Zvi, which is the same meaning. Maybe you want to take on a nickname, we said to him. Hersh looked up at us and said confidently: “I’m Hersh. Israelis will deal with that.”
As Hersh got older, his curiosity, memorization, and self-assuredness evolved into deep independent thinking. Hersh thought about issues and developed principled conclusions.
In 6th grade, at an […] interview at […], the teacher posed a question to the visiting 6th-grade boys, something about Middle East politics and he offered two answers: one liberal answer, and a more conservative answer, sending the boys who answered each to different sides of the room. That night, Hersh told us about the interview and that he went to the side of the room that he did. And we said, “how many others were on your side?” and he shrugged and he said “just me”.
Ten-ish years ago, at Hersh’s encouragement after he learned about this issue, a family took to the streets to fight for the rights of African asylum seekers. This was after Hersh searched our house and declared to us: “If the police get really aggressive in pursuing them, we get to hide at least one in each dishwasher”.
In the second part of the Mishna, “judge all people with the benefit of the doubt.” A wise diplomat whom we met in this excruciating 330 day journey, told us: “You obviously don’t have to agree with the other side on an issue, but you must truly take the time to understand them.” We’ve learned increasingly in these 11 months, how much Hersh exemplified the guidance of this wise diplomat.
Hersh’s friends, former campers, people he met at various music festivals, and so many more, across nationalities, religions, and ages, have reached out to us, to tell us of course they always had a great time hanging out with Hersh, but they also thoroughly enjoyed real, meaningful, conversations with him, in which he stretched their thinking.
Just a few of the topics on which Hersh has challenged us on in recent years include: the ethics of eating animals, the pros and cons of nation states, Israeli settlement policy, Hallahic observance, the value of a university degree, consumer consumption, and so much more. Always seeking to understand the other, and always with dignity and respect.
One of the most fitting posts I saw about Hersh yesterday was the one that said: “?May his memory be a revolution.” The most common word that I’ve received from people, thousands of messages, is “Sleeha/I’m sorry”.
Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have at once understand the other to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking. And what you’d be pushing for now is to ensure that your death, the deaths of all the soldiers, and the deaths of so many innocent civilians, are not mishav/not in vain. Your starting point would be returning all of the hostages.
For 330 days, mom and I sought the proverbial stone that we could turn over to save you. Maybe, just maybe, your death is the stone, the fuel that would bring all the remaining 101 hostages. Od lo havda tikvatenu.
But you’re a dreamer, an expensive thinker, so you would keep on pushing for a rethinking of this region. You would say, you have said, that we must take a chance on a path with potential to end the ongoing cycle of violence. You would ignore people’s public posturing, what people say for press conferences, and you would push every decision maker to truly look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, selflessly, every single day, will the decisions I make today lead to a better future for all of us? And you would tell, any decision maker who cannot answer that question with an emphatic yes to step aside.
A Polin cousin reminded me that one of the several explanations for the name Polin is rooted in the words “~Ohel Yechouhot/A Worker for Salvation”. Not in the proselytizing sense, but in the general sense. This was my uncle [?]’s explanation for why my grandfather was a pharmacist, my uncle was a rabbi, and my father was a doctor — all healing professions.
Hersh, you were a true “~Ohel Yechouhot”. Before October 7th, you always saw ways to make the world around you better. Since October 7th, you have become a global symbol for bringing improvement to our world. This morning, I saw a clip of a vigil that took place in New York last night. How appropriate that the crowd was singing: “~Ani veatah michabeh et a olam/You and I will change the world”.
The 23 years of life that we had with you were a blessing. We will now work to make your legacy a similar blessing. You were a really great guy. I love you.”
Mother, Rachel Goldberg’s Speech
“I have had a lot of time during the past 332 days to think about my sweet boy Hersh. And one thing I keep thinking about is how, out of all the mothers in the whole entire world, God chose to give Hersh to me. What must have I done in a past life to deserve such a beautiful gift? It must’ve been glorious.
Hersh and I once watched some documentaries a couple of years ago together about young people who had died and he commented: ‘How come everyone who dies young is always said to be the funniest, the smartest, the greatest, the handsomest? Why doesn’t anyone ever say ‘I liked Max, but you know what, he was pretty stupid, his sense of humor was off, and he had bad breath’.’ I am honest, and I’d say, it’s not that Hersh was perfect, but he was the perfect son for me, and I am so grateful to God and I want to do Hakarat Hatov and thank God, right now, in front of all of you, for giving me this magnificent present of my Hersh. For 23 years, I was privileged to have the most stunning honor to be Hersh’s mama. I’ll take it and say thank you. I just wish it had been for longer.
Hersh, for all these months, I’ve been in such torment and worried about you for every millisecond of every single day. It was such a specific type of misery that I never experienced before. I tried hard to surpass the missing you part because that, I was convinced, would break me. So I spent 330 days terrified, scared, worrying, and frightened. It closed my throat and my soul throbbed with 3rd degree burns.
Part of what is so deeply crushing and confusing for all of us, is that a strange thing happened along this macabre path upon which our family found itself traveling for the last 332 days. Amidst the inexplicable agony, terror, anguish, desperation, and fear, we became absolutely certain that you were coming home to us alive, when it was not to be.
Now I no longer have to worry about you, I know you are no longer in danger. You are with beautiful honor, He would show you around. You will hopefully meet my grandparents who will adore you. And you will start to play chess with Papa Stan. But now my worry shifts to, Dada, Libby, Orly, and me. How do we live the rest of our lives without you?
I pray that your death will be a turning point in this horrible situation in which we are all entangled. I take such comfort knowing you were with Carmel, Ori, Eden, Ori, Almog, and Alex.
From what I have been told, they each were delightful in very different ways. I think that is how the six of you managed to stay alive in unimaginable circumstances for so very long. You each and every single one of you did every single thing right to survive 329 days in what I’m pretty sure can only be described as hell. I send each of the families my deepest sympathies for what we are all going through and for the sickening feeling that we all could not save them. I think we all did every single thing we could.
The hope that perhaps a deal was near, was so authentic, it was crunchy, it tasted close. But it was not to be so. Those beautiful 6 survived together and those beautiful 6 died together. And now they will be remembered together forever.
Hersh, like most parents, Dada and I would often talk about who you would become., what you would be like when you grew up, what you would do, what you would look like, and what kind of parent you would be. But now you will forever be our beautiful boy. You will stay the energetic, kind, patient, curious, funny, irreverent, pensive, forever handsome, forever young, forever my sweet boy.
You squeezed into your young life a lot of experiences, and that gives relief and comfort. You made true, deep friendships, you traveled each summer and started to explore the world, you worked, you learned, you read, you taught, you served, you listened, you even fell in love and had a true deep relationship for more than 2 years, and you shared the excitement of that new experience with us. You charmed everyone you ever talked to, young or old, you promoted justice and peace in a way that only a young pure wide-eyed idealist can. You never raised your voice to me in your life, you treated me respectfully always, even when you chose a different path.
When you wrote to us from the bomb shelter, you had just seen your girlfriend get killed, you had lost your arm, and you thought you were dying, and you wrote to us ‘I’m sorry’ because you knew how crushing it would be for us to lose you. So you fought to stay alive. And now you are gone.
At this time, I ask your forgiveness if ever I was impatient or insensitive to you during your life, or neglected you in some way, I deeply and sincerely request your forgiveness Hersh. If there was something we could have done to save you and we didn’t think of it, I beg your forgiveness, we tried so very hard, so deeply and desperately, I’m sorry!
Now my Hersh I ask for your help. As we transform our hope into grief, in this new unknowing brand of pain, I beg of you Hersh, please do what you can to have your light shine down on me, Dada, Libby and Orly. Help shower us with healing and resilience, help us to rise again. I know it’ll take a long time but please may God bless us that one day, one fine day, Dada, Libby, Orly and I will hear laughter and will turn around and see, it’s us, and that we’re okay.
You will always be with us as a force of love and vitality, you will become our superpower.
To Dalia, Matt, and Richard, who came to be with us every single day during this odyssey of torture, there will never be enough words to express my gratitude to each one of you.
And I want to say now, a sincere and most heartfelt thank you to the countless people in this entire extended community who have held us, cared for us, prayed for us, cooked for us, and carried us when we could not stand up. I am so thankful to you and I apologize deeply but we’re now going to need continued help to get through this sickening new chapter too. And I’m so sorry to ask because we have given you nothing and you have already given us profoundly and completely for 11 months. But I beg of you all, please don’t leave us now.
Okay sweet boy, go now on your journey. I hope it’s as good as the trips you dreamed about because finally my sweet bot, finally finally finally finally you’re free! I will love you and I will miss you every single day for the rest of my life, but you’re right here, I know you’re right here, I just have to teach myself how to feel you in a different way. And Hersh there is one last thing I need you to do for us. Now I need you to help us stay strong and I need you to help us survive.”
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