Greater than 4 months in the past — on Oct. 7, 2023 — American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, hid together with his childhood pal, Workers Sgt. Aner Shapira, 22, together with 29 different younger individuals in a tiny roadside bomb shelter as Hamas terrorists stormed the Supernova music pageant in southern Israel.
At daybreak, rockets went off and armed terrorists descended upon the Negev desert from motorized paragliders.
They raped girls and massacred some 1,200 individuals in Israel that day, together with 367 of the over 3,000 individuals who attended the pageant.
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Goldberg-Polin despatched his mom, Rachel Goldberg, two textual content messages that morning. One mentioned, “I really like you,” and the opposite mentioned, “I’m sorry.”
Goldberg informed Fox Information Digital in a telephone interview just lately, “He was simply beginning his life. We pray to God he’ll come residence.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was injured and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Fox Information Digital just lately spoke to his mom, Rachel Goldberg, who mentioned, “We pray to God he’ll come residence.” (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
It is her religion that is saved her going by the toughest of instances, she revealed in a generally emotional interview.
‘A distinct universe’
Goldberg and her husband stay in Israel (they have been each born and raised in Chicago). They’ve three youngsters — their son Hersh was born in California. The household moved to Israel when he was practically eight years outdated.
She’d seen her son in Jerusalem the night time earlier than the act of terrorism, at a Shabbat dinner after synagogue, Goldberg recounted.
“Round 11 p.m., he kissed me, and he kissed my husband, and he mentioned, ‘Love you guys. See you tomorrow.’”
She realized the grim particulars of what occurred to her son and his pal from 4 survivors who have been trapped beneath useless our bodies in the identical bomb shelter as her son.
When the terrorists threw hand grenades into the shelter, Shapira heroically threw seven of them again out. However the eighth exploded in his fingers — killing him.
This picture constituted of undated bodycam video footage taken by a downed Hamas terrorist and launched by Israel Protection Forces reveals a Hamas terrorist strolling round a residential neighborhood at an undisclosed location in southern Israel. (Israel Protection Forces through AP)
Extra grenades have been tossed into the shelter and gunfire went off. Eighteen individuals have been murdered in that rampage alone.
Terrorists wielding machine weapons then ordered Hersh Goldberg-Polin and two different wounded younger males right into a pickup truck outdoors.
“He was not screaming. He was clearly in shock.”
When Goldberg-Polin stood up, survivors reported seeing that his left arm had been blown off from the elbow down.
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Rachel Goldberg and her husband, Jon Polin, later noticed video footage from the pageant of their son moving into the truck.
Goldberg informed Fox Information Digital, “He was not screaming. He was clearly in shock. You’ll be able to see that his arm is blown off … He tied some type of bandage, with a T-shirt or one thing round it. He will get himself onto the truck by himself, and when he turns to take a seat down you’ll be able to see the stump the place his arm was.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, left, pictured together with his mother and father, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin. He has been held captive since Oct. 7, 2023. His mother and father have been strongly advocating for his launch and the discharge of all of the hostages ever since. (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
The distraught mom added, “We’ve been dwelling in a special universe since.”
The final cellphone sign from her son’s telephone was at 10:25 a.m. that Saturday, she mentioned.
‘Hope is necessary’
Hersh Goldberg-Polin is one among over 240 individuals who have been kidnapped by Hamas; 45 of them have been taken from the music pageant.
It’s believed that as of proper now, over 130 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza. The youngest is seemingly a one-year-old child.
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Rachel Goldberg is fashionable Orthodox. She credit her religion and her relationship with God for serving to her persevere by the emotional ache, concern and uncertainty she is experiencing.
“God has religion in us, and offers us one other probability to have one other day to [create] that means in our lives.”
“If you’re a believer, hope is necessary,” she mentioned.
She recites the Modeh Ani prayer upon awakening to indicate her gratitude to God, she informed Fox Information Digital.
Goldberg along with her son, Hersh. Ever since Oct. 7, she’s been studying a psalm every day that corresponds with the variety of days her son has been held hostage by Hamas, she informed Fox Information Digital. (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
“It is a one-line prayer that simply says, ‘Thanks for giving my life again to me, for returning my soul to me, and for having religion in me.’”
She added, “I really like that concept that God has religion in us, and offers us one other probability to have one other day to [create] that means in our lives.”
The devoted mother reads psalms all through the day, which she mentioned strengthens her.
“I consider Psalms as a self-help guide, as a result of you’ll be able to choose whichever one speaks to you in that second.”
“I consider Psalms as a self-help guide, as a result of you’ll be able to choose whichever one speaks to you in that second,” she mentioned.
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“A few of the psalms are saying, ‘Hallelujah, you are wonderful,’ and a few of them are saying, ‘I am on the backside of a pit. The place are you? Why are you hiding your face from me? Assist me, assist me!’”
Psalm 23 reminds her that God is along with her, she mentioned. “‘Despite the fact that I’m going by the shadow of scary issues, I do know that you just’re with me,'” she mentioned. “It is a actually useful gizmo for people who find themselves within the midst of one thing actually troublesome.”
She additionally summarized Psalm 121 as, “I’m calling out to you from the depths.”
After Oct. 7, she mentioned she has been studying a psalm every day that corresponds with the variety of days her son has been held hostage.
‘Don’t want two arms to journey’
Rachel Goldberg’s voice each lifted and broke as she spoke about her son to Fox Information Digital.
She described his humor as “sarcastic with out being imply,” and mentioned he at all times adhered to the commandment of being respectful towards his mother and father.
He is a voracious reader who loves music, taking part in soccer and tenting, she mentioned.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin (far proper) as a toddler, together with his sisters. He was planning to journey for not less than one other 12 months when he was kidnapped, mentioned his mom. (Goldberg-Polin household)
Because the age of 15, he is been energetic in Hapoel Jerusalem, a corporation that hosts youth coexistence actions, equivalent to soccer video games that includes Jewish and Arab children taking part in collectively.
When he was in first grade, her son requested for his subscription to Nationwide Geographic Youngsters to be upgraded to the common Nationwide Geographic, she mentioned.
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All the time inquisitive about exploring completely different locations, he traveled to 6 European international locations for 9 weeks by himself final summer season, attending music festivals and assembly individuals from everywhere in the world.
He was planning to journey for not less than one other 12 months when he was kidnapped, mentioned his mom.
Liberating the captives is a very powerful mitzvah (commandment), in response to Jewish custom, mentioned Goldberg.
She mentioned she prays that he’ll “get the assistance that he wants, that he’ll get the brand new arm that he wants — and that he’ll take that journey all over the world, since you do not want two arms to journey,” she added.
Goldberg believes the hostage state of affairs in Gaza is a world humanitarian disaster, she mentioned, and that liberating the captives is a very powerful mitzvah (commandment), in response to Jewish custom.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin as a toddler. “There is a second in everybody’s life the place it is time to get up and be courageous,” mentioned mom Rachel Goldberg. “In a disaster, that is when actually who you’re comes out, and it is when who you’re will likely be remembered.” (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
She mentioned that even when it’s scary to become involved, “there is a second in everybody’s life the place it is time to get up and be courageous … In a disaster, that is when actually who you’re comes out, and it is when who you’re will likely be remembered.”
She and her husband got here up with the thought of an academic initiative to advocate for the hostages in Gaza, and to boost consciousness about how freedom from captivity is a primary common human proper for each harmless individual across the globe.
‘Everybody Counts’
Jewish academic organizations, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Schooling, and Kol HaOt — in partnership with The Jewish Schooling Challenge — introduced this concept to life by launching the web site Everybody Counts on Jan. 14, 2024 — which marked 100 days of captivity for the hostages.
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The day after the positioning launched was Martin Luther King Jr. Day — and the Everybody Counts web site displayed his quotes noting staunch assist for Israel, democracy, freedom and peace that individuals may publicize.
Photographs of “The Kidnapped Hearts” exhibit in Ness Ziona, Israel, present life-size black iron silhouettes of the hostages with empty hearts reduce out, illustrating the harrowing emotional results of their captivity.
Jon Polin, left, together with his son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who remains to be a captive of terrorists in Gaza. Freedom from captivity is a primary common human proper for each harmless individual across the globe, Jon Polin and his spouse Rachel Goldberg imagine. (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
The Everybody Counts web site additionally hyperlinks to different websites equivalent to Hearken to Mothers — which provides assist for moms from 25 completely different international locations who’ve been advocating for the discharge of the infants and kids kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.
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There are easy steps listed on the web site that individuals can observe, equivalent to taking one minute a day to contact their members of Congress, or sporting a yellow ribbon, an emblem of hope for freedom for the hostages.
The show of this image in public indicators to the households of hostages that their family members haven’t been forgotten.
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Each act of advocacy will be devoted to a specific hostage, the positioning additionally notes.
No’a Gorlin, COO at M², said, “Everybody Counts is about figuring out the individuals, and figuring out every individual — it’s not just a few story on the market. That is very private. These are individuals, these are people, these are lives. Each is a narrative and a world in and of itself.”
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