Updates From a Desperate Mother: Rachel Goldberg Pleads Her Son Hersh’s Case After 54 Days of Captivity

“I feel like a faded piece of who I was,” mother of kidnapped son tells international journalists.

Fifty-four days have passed since the atrocities of Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killing more than 1,200 people—at least 900 of whom were civilians—and taking more than 240 hostages.

A temporary cease-fire is now on its sixth day and may be further extended. Israel has agreed to pause its counteroffensive in Gaza and release some detained Palestinians as part of a hostage release deal.

But Hamas has apparently insisted that Israeli men, in addition to male and female soldiers, are ineligible for release during this pause in fighting.

Rachel Goldberg’s son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, is among the remaining captives. In the days since his capture, she has been among the most vocal members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, speaking before the United Nations, the pope, 300,000 pro-Israel rallygoers in Washington, DC, and, most recently, a group of international journalists.

Surviving a Massacre

Speaking to the group of journalists via Zoom, in a call facilitated by the Israeli Government Press Office, Goldberg began the story with her son’s last known experiences on Oct. 7.

Hersh, his best friend Aner Shapira, 22, and several other friends were at the Nova music and peace festival that fateful Saturday morning. When the shooting and rocket fire began, they tried to escape.

At first, they went for their cars, but they were quickly caught in roadblocks where terrorists were indiscriminately killing everyone in their paths. They then ran to the nearest roadside bomb shelter. Some 30 people in total crammed into the small 8-by-5-foot concrete box.

The terrorists lobbed at least seven grenades into the shelter, also firing a rocket-propelled grenade and barrages of automatic AK-47 gunfire.

Shapira, an unarmed, off-duty soldier, managed to save several of the partygoers sheltering with them. He threw all seven grenades back out toward Hamas, fought the terrorists off with his bare hands, and helped to barricade the door. Several surviving witnesses, who avoided capture by hiding under corpses, gave testimony corroborating his heroism.

A parked car’s dashcam footage, retrieved by South First Responders, also shows Shapira’s actions.

Along with many others, Shapira died from wounds sustained in the attack. He was laid to rest at Israel’s military cemetery on Mount Herzl.

Dashcam footage of the shelter where Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Aner Shapira, and some 27 other Israelis tried to hide from Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. Throughout the video, terrorists fire an RPG and automatic rifles and throw at least seven grenades at the entrance to the shelter. Shapira has been credited as guarding the entrance from the onslaught. (South First Responders)

Goldberg-Polin survived the attack, and Hamas fighters ordered him and several other young men to exit the shelter, after which they were loaded onto a pickup truck and carted into Gaza.

In video footage of this event aired by Anderson Cooper on CNN, Goldberg-Polin can be seen alive, with his left arm blown off at the elbow.

Goldberg said this video was the last indication she ever received of her son’s condition.

“He was clearly in shock, and the fact that it looked like he was walking calmly is more likely evidence of his shell shock and trauma than anything else,” she said.

Bittersweet Speculation

As for Hersh’s condition today, Goldberg said, “We’re told that hostages are more valuable alive, and that supposedly people were taken to hospital as needed.”

She reported being told that her son would have needed a relatively simple surgery. “In theory he could have received a proper amputation by any general surgeon and then afterward, all he’d need is antibiotics,” she said. “But this begs the question—what did he receive?”

In the nearly two months since Goldberg-Polin’s abduction by Hamas, the Goldbergs have been reaching out to the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Physicians for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, among other organizations, in hopes of ensuring proper medical care for Goldberg-Polin. All the groups have said that Hamas would not allow access.

Goldberg questioned whether the organizations were applying all the pressure they could. “The Red Cross was able to get in to see Gazan civilians in need. We hoped they could also go in and say, for every Gazan we treat, we’d like to see the hostages as well. But it doesn’t look like that happened,” she said.

She said that the Red Cross has functioned essentially as “the Uber service for the released hostages.” “We’re grateful for the safe transfer back to Israel … but we know there are 85-year-old people who need to be seen, and babies, and children, and all of these wounded from the music festival who were in small spaces where grenades were thrown in,” she said. “We know many young people like Hersh were terribly wounded.”

Goldberg has managed to share in the joy of other families from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum whose loved ones have come home. She described images of hostages being released as “the first moment of respite and slivers of light.”

She said that she is well acquainted with many mothers of young children being held in Gaza. “I’ve been in many meetings with these anguished mothers, whose young, small children were stolen from them. These people were inconsolable at the thought of what was being done to their kids. The thought of 4-year-old Avigail Idan in the darkness, for example, was unbearable,” she said.

“Obviously I’d love to see Hersh as one of the released,” she continued. “But he’s not a woman and not a child. He’s my child, but in the optics of how this plays out, that’s not taken into account. So, we have to continue praying, and hoping, and turning over every stone, and throwing darts in every direction, to do what we can to save his life and the other 160 plus.”

Goldberg expressed complicated feelings about Israel’s decision to trade detained Palestinians, many of whom are convicted terrorists, for civilian hostages. “I’m not a political expert or military strategist,” she said. “I’m a mother. But I understand it’s complicated. It’s not an easy place we’re in. We know from experience that the price we pay—because we value life—is unfortunately a very steep one.”

International Aid

As American Israelis with dual citizenship, Goldberg said that the US Embassy was the family’s first call. Although they thought at first that Hersh had been killed, they still received overwhelming support. “Immediately, the US administration, Congress, President [Joe] Biden … everyone has been extremely supportive, communicative, helpful, and trying their best to have this come to a good resolution,” she said. “Not only for the US citizens, but for all the hostages.”

Goldberg has personally met once with President Biden and twice with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in addition to meeting with nearly 30 senators and governors. “We really felt the support, which is invaluable,” she said. “But by day 54, we want to see action.”

“I feel like a faded piece of who I was,” she continued. “A lot of [my strength] is primal. I’m trying to save my son’s life. I have to suck it up and be strong. And when I need to cry or fall to pieces, I do. But then I wipe my face, say, ‘You’ve a job to do,’ and I get up.”

In the meantime, international support has helped maintain the Goldbergs’ spirits, as well as those of other families with loved ones held hostage. Goldberg said the volunteers and other families have worked tirelessly to support them, as if it were their own child taken hostage.

“People writing to us is really helpful when you feel alone and broken,” she added. “People from all over the world write to us and give us strength.” She also noted that as “religious people,” the family prays every morning.

Who Is Hersh Goldberg-Polin?

Goldberg described her son as a wonderful, respectful, kind, curious person, “who has a really sharp, but not mean, sense of humor.”

“He’s obsessed with geography and travel since he was young,” she said. “He always wanted a map, or an atlas, or globe for his birthdays.” She said that he has been reading National Geographic from cover to cover since a young age.

He is also an avid reader and music lover, she said.

“He liked asking hard questions and challenging himself and others,” Goldberg continued. “He was a believer of peace and coexistence. He is part of a Jerusalem soccer fan club that does a lot of work for coexistence, high-risk youth, and the gender gap in sports. That’s his worldview. On his nightstand is the book he’s reading that he left behind—The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. That’s Hersh.”