For the final 5 months, Chicago native Jeremiah Smith, 28, has been driving a truck round main U.S. cities and faculty campuses with an image of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 24, and different hostages who had been kidnapped in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists.
This week, he is circling via the Windy Metropolis because the Democratic Nationwide Conference (DNC) takes place.
Smith’s mission to remind others in regards to the hostages’ plight is deeply private to him.
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Goldberg-Polin was like a “little brother” to him, Smith instructed Fox Information Digital. Goldberg-Polin’s grandmother, Marcy Goldberg, rescued Smith from the troublesome circumstances of his childhood and launched him to a brand new lifestyle.
This backdrop of outreach, friendship and kindness in America has helped gas Smith’s efforts behind the wheel of a truck, this week and effectively earlier than.
Jeremiah Smith of Chicago, left, with Leebie Goldberg-Polin, sister of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, at proper, who remains to be being held hostage by Hamas. Jeremiah Smith and Hersh Goldberg-Polin had been childhood associates whereas rising up within the Chicago space. (Jeremiah Smith; Rachel Goldberg/AP)
Smith has pushed round Chicago, New York Metropolis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis and components of New Jersey so far.
Regardless of masked pro-Palestinian protesters kicking his truck, throwing water at it and making an attempt to open the door whereas he was driving, he simply retains going, he mentioned.
“They had been giving me the center finger. They stubborn me out.”
Smith described his expertise driving round DePaul College in Chicago in Could whereas pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded the campus in encampments.
“They had been giving me the center finger. They stubborn me out,” Smith mentioned.
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“A few folks referred to as me a White supremacist. A few folks referred to as me the N-word.”
He mentioned that some tried to incite him to struggle. “I felt possibly one time that I used to be going to get attacked.”
“I’ll be out right here till each hostage is dwelling.”
Smith added, “They [say] they need peace, however they actually don’t. I noticed how a lot hate there was.”
After 5 months of driving this truck six days per week, Smith reported that out of all of the protesters he encountered, “possibly two folks got here to speak to me who had been peaceable.”
Jeremiah Smith with Leebie Goldberg-Polin just a few weeks in the past in Chicago. Smith mentioned he desires everyone to know he’s by no means going to cease preventing for the hostages nonetheless held by Hamas terrorists. For months, he is been driving a truck with hostages’ footage on it to remind others of the captives’ plight. (Jeremiah Smith)
He continued, “Some folks, after I tried to speak to them, would simply put up a 10-7 [with their hands] … then [would make a sign] with their fingers [as if they’re] slicing their throat.”
Smith mentioned he desires everyone to know that he’s by no means going to cease preventing for the hostages held by Hamas terrorists to be freed.
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His devotion to a good friend and to the trigger has deep roots in his personal upbringing.
‘First Jewish individual I met’
Smith grew up within the Cabrini-Inexperienced housing mission within the Close to North Facet space of Chicago.
“There was violence. Some folks had been promoting medicine, [there were] fights … I used to be seeing folks locked up. I used to be seeing folks shot,” he mentioned.
For Smith, the silver lining was enjoying baseball together with his associates and assembly Marcy Goldberg when he was six years outdated, “the primary Jewish individual I [ever] met.”
She was his tutor on the George Manierre Elementary Faculty in Chicago, he mentioned.
Jeremiah Smith with Hersh Goldberg-Polin in 2006 after they had been rising up collectively as boys. (Jeremiah Smith)
Goldberg invited Smith to her Chicago suburb condo to rejoice Shabbat together with her household — together with younger Hersh, who was only a toddler on the time, he mentioned.
Smith fondly remembered Marcy Goldberg delivering grape juice and challah rolls to sufferers who had been spending Shabbat at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
She and different volunteers on the program she began remodeled 35,000 visits to sufferers in a 25-year interval, in response to Chabad.org.
The Goldberg-Polins grew to become Smith’s surrogate household.
Marcy Goldberg’s charitable nature prolonged to Smith and his household.
She took Smith into her dwelling and cared for him from the ages of 11 to 18. His siblings additionally lived together with her at totally different occasions.
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“I felt protected at Marcy’s home,” he mentioned.
The Goldberg-Polins grew to become Smith’s surrogate household.
Yearly for Passover, he went with Hersh’s dad and mom, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, and each units of younger Hersh’s grandparents, to a Passover retreat at Camp Ramah Darom for about 10 days in Atlanta, Georgia.
Jeremiah Smith with Marcy Goldberg. This photograph was taken throughout Passover, 2024, in Chicago. Marcy Goldberg helped increase Smith throughout a interval of his childhood. (Jeremiah Smith)
Smith relayed how he and Hersh Goldberg-Polin shaped an in depth childhood bond, and described Hersh as having an important humorousness.
“He’s very humorous,” Smith mentioned. “For those who had been round him … he would make his presence recognized by cracking a joke when it’s very quiet.”
The Goldberg-Polin household moved to Israel in 2008, when Hersh was nearly eight years outdated.
Smith added, “He’s so pleasant with everyone. You’re going to know that he’s within the room.”
Smith remembered flying abroad for the primary time to attend his good friend Hersh’s bar mitzvah in Israel. “It was so enjoyable,” Smith mentioned. “I instructed Marcy I wished to have one.”
The Goldberg-Polin household moved to Israel in 2008, when Hersh was nearly eight years outdated, in response to earlier reporting by Fox Information Digital.
‘Going to discover a strategy to get dwelling’
Smith stayed in shut contact with the household over time. He estimated that since Oct. 7, he’s seen Marcy Goldberg about 70 occasions.
When Smith came upon his good friend Hersh had been on the Supernova music competition in Israel on Oct. 7, he mentioned, “My coronary heart began beating actually quick. [It] dropped into my abdomen … I simply thought of Marcy.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin is amongst these taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and nonetheless held to today. “He’s going to discover a strategy to make everybody pleased,” mentioned Jeremiah Smith about his childhood good friend. “He’s the kind of individual you need in your life.” (Goldberg-Polin household)
Smith relayed that when he rushed over to her condo half-hour away, she resolutely instructed him, “He’s going to be dwelling quickly. He’s advantageous.”
He added, “If who Hersh is, [that] he’s going to discover a strategy to get dwelling. He’s going to discover a strategy to make everybody pleased. He’s the kind of individual you need in your life.”
Smith met Jeff Aeder, 62, a longtime household good friend of the Goldberg-Polins, at his first Shabbat dinner at Marcy Goldberg’s when he was younger.
“Antisemitism shouldn’t be a progressive thought. It’s an intolerant concept that has no place on this nation.”
Smith mentioned that his personal father was “nice,” however he was utilizing medicine on the time — and Aeder grew to become “like a second father” to him.
Aeder instructed Fox Information Digital that he got here up with the thought of hiring Smith to drive a truck with footage of Hersh and different hostages throughout it to fight the hate-filled messages he noticed after Oct. 7.
An individual holds a poster of Hersh Goldberg-Polin throughout a rally in Central Park marking 150 days since hostages had been taken in an assault on Israel on March 10, 2024, in New York Metropolis. (Noam Galai/Getty Pictures)
“I noticed some vehicles with Hamas slogans on them and it infuriated me,” he mentioned. “It was actually simply surreal that folks had been popping out and supporting a bloodbath.”
Aeder mentioned he wished to have a peaceable and nonconfrontational means of getting throughout two messages.
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“One is that we will not overlook in regards to the hostages,” he mentioned. “Two is that antisemitism shouldn’t be a progressive thought. It’s an intolerant concept that has no place on this nation.”
He added, “We won’t simply be quiet and never get up. We have now to allow them to know that we’re not going to be intimidated.”
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As for Smith, who remains to be driving a truck with hostage footage on it, “I’ll be out right here till each hostage is dwelling,” he mentioned.
“And when Hersh comes dwelling, and there are nonetheless hostages there, I’m nonetheless going to be out right here.”
Jeremiah Smith with Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Michigan in 2006, plus a more moderen photograph of Goldberg-Polin. (Jeramiah Smith; Rachel Goldberg/AP)
It has been over 300 days for the reason that hostages’ family members have heard from them.
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It’s believed that 111 of the 251 hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 are nonetheless being held captive in Gaza.
Dozens could now not be alive, in response to The Occasions of Israel.
