Her son was last seen badly hurt, being loaded into a Hamas truck: One mother details her 6-month agony
Rachel Goldberg-Polin is fighting to bring home her son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was seized by Hamas from the Nova music festival on oct.7.
JERUSALEM — Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s mantra is the same now as it was six months ago.
“I love you. Stay strong. Survive,” she urges her son, Hersh, one of the more than 130 hostages seized half a year ago by Hamas who have still not been returned from the Gaza Strip.
She repeats those words constantly — whether she is out for a walk in her neighborhood or looking at the poster of her son in their Jerusalem home on Shabbat mornings.
“You can make it through this, and you are going to have a long, beautiful life,” Goldberg-Polin said, 54, recounting the words that she often tells her son in her head.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin with his mother and father in an undated family photo. Courtesy of the Goldberg-Polin familyGoldberg-Polin spoke with NBC News in a modern office space that is tucked into the industrial area of Jerusalem and doubles as the headquarters of the family’s campaign to bring the young man back home. It belongs to a friend and has been transformed into a war room of sorts. The fight: To bring Hersh home safe.Like dozens more Israelis, Goldberg-Polin has not been able to have a real conversation with her child since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.
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