Thousands gathered in Jerusalem to mourn Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage with Chicago ties who was held for nearly a year and killed by Hamas last week.
Goldberg-Polin, 23, was taken hostage while attending the Nova Music Festival when Hamas militant groups attacked Israel, taking 251 people hostage and killing around 1,200 people.
Since then, Goldberg-Polin has become one of the best-known hostages, as his parents and Chicago natives Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, have met numerous times with world leaders to beg for help in bringing their son and other hostages home. They also spoke at last month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
At the funeral held Monday at a cemetery in Jerusalem, Goldberg and Polin; their daughters Libi and Orli; Israeli President Isaac Herzog and others eulogized Goldberg-Polin.
“Before Oct. 7, you always sought ways to make the world around you better,” Polin said. “Since Oct. 7, you have become a global symbol for bringing improvement to our world.”
An emphatic push to bring the remaining 101 hostages home rang through the eulogies.
“As a human being, as a father and as the president of the state of Israel, I want to say how sorry I am, how sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day, how sorry I am that we failed to bring him home,” Herzog said. “The time to act is now. Bring them home.”
Goldberg-Polin’s parents described him as an inquisitive kid who grew into empathetic adult, always seeking to understand others and extend compassion to those who needed it.
Polin told several anecdotes providing evidence of his son’s character, including one about a trip to Florida where a man came into a store and said there was a kid outside asking people to quiz him on U.S. presidential trivia — and then providing the correct answer each time.
Polin had no doubt in his mind who it was — Hersh.
The family members wore torn clothing, carrying on a Jewish tradition in which close family mourners rip clothing in an expression of grief.
Polin’s white shirt was marked by a sticker with “332″ written on it, referring to the number of days her son and other hostages were taken.
They stood at a podium facing a sea of fellow mourners, many holding Israeli flags. At times, the crowd sang in Hebrew, and the family gathered at the podium near the end of the remarks to recite a mourning prayer, called the Kaddish, in Hebrew.
Goldberg focused largely on her good fortune in having Goldberg-Polin as her son. “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,” she said.
Both parents’ remarks also centered on the brutal end to their son’s life, and they addressed him directly to beg forgiveness for being unable to bring him home alive. They described the agony of the last 11 months and revered Goldberg-Polin for doing everything he could to survive as long as he did.
“Finally, my sweet boy finally, finally, finally, finally, you’re free,” Goldberg shouted through tears at the end of her address.
Goldberg-Polin’s body was found Saturday with five other hostages in a tunnel under the city of Rafah in Gaza in what could be a turning point in a war that has turned devastating for Israeli victims and Palestinian civilians alike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under increasing pressure from people on both sides to reach a deal to bring hostages home, and since the announcement of the six hostage deaths, some of the largest protest rallies have been held in Israel since Oct. 7.
“The hope that perhaps a deal was near was so authentic it was crunchy,” Goldberg said. “It tasted close, but it was not to be so. Those beautiful six survived together, and those beautiful six died together. And now they will be remembered together forever.”